Innocenzio
by icyfire
Summary: An ancient evil-and an old enemy-threaten the people Diego loves-and the world. Can Zorro save the day this time? Or will he end up being the biggest threat of all?
1. Default Chapter

Title: Innocenzio

Author: Robin aka icyfire

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I don't make money off of them. I just torture—play with them before sending them home.

Summary: An ancient evil-and an old enemy-threaten the people Diego loves. And the world. Can Zorro save the day this time? Or will he end up being the biggest threat of all?

A/N: This story is a darker fic than most of my others. It deals with vampires and lust and an unhappy marriage.

A great big thank you to **theropodmemory** and the **KlingonKitten** for their great betas of the entire story. And thank you to **pamz** and **Rhiannon** who betaed the first part years ago. They all helped make the story better. But all mistakes remain mine and mine alone.

Rating: I'm going with a hard TV-14 rating. Nothing here that you wouldn't see on broadcast television.

Z Z Z

Out of all of them, he is her favorite. If asked, she would be unable to give a reason why. It might be his blond hair and beard. Certainly, his looks-light to their dark-set him apart from the others. It might be the gleam that sparkled in his eyes or his wonderfully evil smile. Maybe it was that marvelous naiveté that he still possessed.

Grinning, Tasia stroked her hand over his chest. The most likely answer was that he pleased her in bed more than any other. His energy, originality, and stamina made him a superb lover. Tonight, however, the poor baby was already too tired to play anymore. Innocenzio had already slipped into silent slumber.

She could not be too upset with him. After all, he had done a remarkable job today, and dawn was swiftly approaching. She could feel its hushed beginnings in her blood. He was younger than her, and needed more sleep, unable to resist the call of the sun.

Quickly and efficiently, making no noise, she covered them with a blanket that was carelessly lying at the foot of the bed. She let a small giggle escape. Even after all these years, she found a strange comfort in some human habits. She had not felt cold in almost five hundred years, yet she still enjoyed the feel of a heavy blanket cocooning her at night.

Laying her hand on his motionless chest, she did not even flinch when he suddenly cried out "No!" She was used to his almost-daily nightmares. Unable to consciously remember most of his other life, his subconscious forced him to relive one horrifying event over and over again. Wishing that she could bring him comfort, Tasia gently stroked his cheek, enjoying the feel of his coarse hair on her hand.

Feeling the gentle pull of daybreak, Tasia closed her eyes, but refused to sleep until she heard the final cry that signaled the end of Innocenzio's dream. Moaning softly, stiff and unmoving, he finally yelled, "De la Vega? No! I should have known!"

De la Vega? Innocenzio had never said a name before. He had always screamed the line about knowing before falling into a dreamless peace. She would ask him tomorrow if he could remember the name "de la Vega". It might help him to fill in the white void that existed in his mind about the time before their life together. He was always yearning to remember...

Tasia's final thought as she slipped into unconsciousness was that the Devil's Fortress had brought her a wonderful gift in Innocenzio.

Z Z Z

_Don_ Alejandro sighed softly and turned to leave his bedroom, wishing he could offer some excuse to miss breakfast. It used to be his favorite time of the day, beginning in his youth. Many wonderful family discussions were held while eating eggs and drinking thick hot chocolate. As soon as Diego had returned home from Spain, they had quickly fallen into their old routine of discussing everything at the breakfast table. Some mornings their conversations went from debating the King's recent actions to the best time to plant roses.

Now, the conversation was limited to asking for food to be passed. And even those innocent requests were issued with caution.

Even though he had feared this fate for his son, he never expected it to be so bad. It hurt even more when he recalled how wonderful the marriage between him and his own Elena had been. Watching Diego and his bride, he doubted either would ever experience a fourth of the happiness that Alejandro had in his marriage.

Sitting down at the table, he remembered the morning Diego made his announcement. Alejandro, after he calmed down from his coughing fit, had voiced his concerns. Marriage without love was a common practice, but he doubted Diego and Victoria could find happiness together. They were too different; Victoria was too passionate for his Diego. She lacked the ability to appreciate his son's finer qualities. Besides, everyone knew where her heart truly belonged, even if she was tired of waiting for her masked hero.

His son had laughed away his concerns. With the arrogance and ignorance of youth, Diego declared that they would be happy together. Alejandro had prayed that the younger man would be right. However, even as he walked Victoria down the aisle, he had doubted it.

And for those first few glorious months, it had appeared that he had been mistaken, but then...

"Good morning, Father," Diego greeted him. He walked slightly behind his wife. Alejandro noticed that Diego's hands were firmly clasped behind his back. During the first few months of their marriage, he had always kept his hand on Victoria's back, as if guiding her or perhaps protecting her.

"Good morning, Father," Victoria echoed. Dark circles under her eyes spoke of another night of little sleep. Her smile was again absent, and her eyes remained firmly fixed on the table.

"Good morning, you two," he said with what he hoped sounded like happiness in his own voice. He wished he could speak to Diego or Victoria. He wished he had some advice to give them. He wished they could all stop pretending that everything was normal in the de la Vega _hacienda_. "You missed a wonderful party last night."

Victoria's eyes shot over to look at her husband and then down to the plate in front of her. "I'm sure we did," Diego answered for them. "_Don_ Fernando and his wife are always entertaining, but Victoria did not feel up to all the excitement."

"I hope you are not getting ill, my dear," _Don_ Alejandro said, taking a bite of his egg dish. Breakfast, while still prepared excellently by his cook, was no longer a meal he enjoyed. He ate to fill his stomach, and he did it as fast as he could in a civilized manner.

Victoria's eyes raced up to meet his, and the sound of her fork hitting her plate echoed across the room. Diego stopped eating in surprise, and he finally looked at his wife. She returned Diego's gaze for only a moment before picking up her fork. "Actually, I'm not ill, Father. I'm expecting."

_Don_ Alejandro felt a grin approach his face. Then, he looked at his son, expecting to see surprise and delight. Instead, Diego sat, holding his fork, his face blank of any expression. He mentally urged him to say something, to lift up Victoria and swing her around in the same way he had when Elena announced Diego's approaching birth. He remembered the sound of her laughter when he had set her down and apologized for treating her so roughly. "Oh, my love," she had said. "Do not worry so! I'm not fragile, and I know your son will not be either."

Diego did not even smile. He returned his attention to his breakfast. "We shall have to convert the old nursery back to its original use," he said after taking a bite.

"Yes," Victoria agreed, taking a sip of her orange juice.

_Don_ Alejandro's face lost its smile. Looking down at his plate with sudden revulsion, he knew he would never be able to finish the meal.

Z Z Z


	2. Chapter 2

Laughter often accompanied dinner. Tasia had grown used to it since Innocenzio had become her companion. His joy in the feast became hers. No longer was she subjected to ennui about her meal. Instead, she reveled in it almost as much as he did.

He smiled as he licked the last drop of blood from his lips. He turned to Robert. The short, little Englishman had joined her household shortly after Innocenzio. One day she would kill him and allow him to be reborn into a vampire, but until that day, he would protect her and her secrets. "As usual, Robert, you did an excellent job with the selection of our dinner."

Robert smiled at Innocenzio's compliment. He loved her young vampire as much as she did, and if she were willing to share, he would offer himself to Innocenzio as a lover. She, however, was not willing to share. So, Robert expressed himself by making sure Innocenzio's every wish was answered.

She waved to Robert, and he picked up the remains of the young woman that had been Innocenzio's dinner. The lifeless eyes of her meal stared up at her from the pale corpse lying at her feet as she reached over to pick up her wine glass. The man had been a coward-he'd offered up his wife's life in exchange for his own-and she always thought the blood of cowards tasted slightly off, but Robert's choice of wine had been inspired and eased her disappointment in his selection of meal for her tonight.

As she sipped from her glass, she remembered the new information revealed during Innocenzio's sleep. The messenger that she received earlier had kept her occupied for most of the night and away from her lover. He smiled at her. She quietly said his name, enjoying the sound of it.

"Yes, my love," he said, leaning forward. He had the manners of a human, but she found them endearing instead of silly. He affected her senses beyond reason, beyond anything she'd felt before. Perhaps it was time to take a new lover. Even as the thought passed through her mind, she rejected it. She was not ready to give him up just yet.

"I was wondering," she sighed, learning forward herself. However, her movement came from thought instead of instinct. Her hearing was excellent; the sound of a body being dumped into a wagon outside was as loud as if Robert was in the room with them performing his duties. With deliberate effort, she had left behind most of her human traits centuries ago, but she had been relearning them for this new one. "Does the name 'de la Vega' mean anything to you?"

He clutched his empty glass so tightly it should have broken. He looked down at it and took a shaky breath as he forced his fingers to relax. "De la Vega. De la Vega. I-I can't remember." Rubbing his forehead, he sighed. "It's like the name should mean something, but-it makes me feel frustrated and amused."

"Frustrated and amused?"

His eyes twinkled as he shrugged. "Odd but true. Why do you ask?"

"You said the name in your sleep last night."

Excitement danced across his handsome features. "I did? Do you think it's my name?"

"No," she said with a small smile. "I do not believe you are a de la Vega."

"Why not?"

She took another sip of her wine. "The way you said the name-whoever he was, he was your enemy."

"The fact he was my enemy doesn't mean he wasn't a member of my family."

Remembering her own past as a human, she laughed. "True. However, most family members don't call each other by last name."

He laughed with her. "Would be confusing at family gatherings."

"True." She looked down at the parchment sitting on the table in front of her.

She heard Innocenzio settle back into his chair. "So, we are about to move. Again."

Her eyebrow lifted as she shifted her focus back to him. "How-?"

"You have been distracted ever since you received that-" he pointed at the letter in front of her "-earlier. And tonight we dined on locals instead of livestock. I believe my entrée was the daughter of the wealthiest man in this area. Sure to be missed. Although he may have been willing to overlook the loss of his son-in-law," he said as he glanced down at the man at her feet.

A flicker of her eyebrow as she glanced down at the body was the only outward display of distaste she allowed herself. Innocenzio knew her; she had little doubt he could sense her scorn earlier as the man cried on her dress, pleading for mercy, offering to help her capture other humans to stand in his place.

She returned the conversation to the envelope. "So you managed to deduce my plans. I do love your mind."

He smiled that wonderfully wicked smile of his. "But not as much as my body."

"No," she admitted, standing. She strolled to his end of the table, the envelope clutched tightly in her fingers. "Your body is a fine instrument."

"And you know how to play it."

She leaned down and gently sucked on his ear. "That I do, my love."

He tensed as Robert walked in to clear her side of the table. Unlike the other traits he maintained from his life, his modesty did not amuse her. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "You are mine to do with as I please. When I please."

Excitement flared in his eyes. "Yes, Mistress." His tone was slightly mocking, challenging her.

Instead of infuriating her, it increased her own excitement. Hours passed before she remembered the envelope and the hint to a long-promised power it contained. A power that would be found in a place called Los Angeles.

ZZZ

Diego reached inside the cart for another cask of wine. In the month since Victoria had announced her pregnancy, he had done as much physical labor as he could. Wanting to punish himself, he pushed himself harder than ever before. Every night, he fell into bed beside his silent wife, knowing that she was pretending to sleep. Sometimes he even managed to sleep until the dawn.

"Here, Diego, let me take that," a smooth voice said from behind him. He resisted the urge to plant his fist in the man's face. He even kept himself from grabbing onto the wood tighter, fighting the desire to act as if the wine was a meaty bone and he and Raul were two hungry dogs. Sometimes he even amazed himself with his self-control. Every muscle in his body itched to wipe the smirk off that man's face.

"Of course," he said, trying to smile as he handed the wine over. He would not hand over his wife so easily. Victoria was his, even if she was unhappy. They had made vows, and Raul would not be allowed to become between them. He wished he believed his own thoughts; he used to never doubt Victoria's love. But that was before he saw the misery in her eyes, before she became so unhappy with him.

He wiped his brow. Even though the sun had already begun to set, the day's heat still hung in the air. He wondered if he could go inside the tavern and tell Victoria he would escort her home. Perhaps he should just wait until she walked out, but what if she was with Raul now? What if the other man had carried his cask of wine inside the tavern, showing off his strength, and flirted with Victoria? Diego shook his head as he reached for another barrel; his imagination was supplying all types of fantasies these days. Within minutes he could go from imagining Victoria passionately proclaiming her love to imagining her just as passionately declaring her hate. Both feelings would be preferable to the cold indifference she now usually showed him.

"Excuse me, _Señor_," a voice so melodic that it had to belong to a singer brought his attention away from his wife and back to the plaza. "I have come to pick up the last of our luggage. The innkeeper said we could keep it here until we had everything settled."

"I'm sorry, _Señorita_, but I do not work here. I'll help you find Raul, the manager, and he can help you find your luggage."

The black-haired beauty in front of him laughed. She covered her mouth. "I'm sorry. My mistake. I saw you help unload the wagon-"

Diego waved away her apology. "A natural assumption, _Señorita_." He was covered in dust and grime from a day of hard labor, and his clothes were in worse shape than he was.

"It is _Señora_, _Señor_."

"My turn to apologize," Diego said with a slight bow.

She held out her hand. "_Señora_ Tasia Tepes," she introduced herself.

Leaning over, he kissed her hand. "Diego de la Vega, at your service." With her hand still grasped in his own, he started to pull himself up straight when his gaze met hers. He froze in place, unable to think, lost in the beauty of those eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but he could find neither the words nor the ability. His blood surged through his veins, and he had to fight the urge to taste her lips. Those eyes, they held the answers he yearned for, answers to questions he did not even know to ask.

"Diego." He turned to find his wife standing beside him.

"V-Victoria," he stuttered, regaining his senses. Looking over his shoulder at _Señora_ Tepes, he noticed her smile. Perfect white teeth framed by luscious red lips. Yet, even as he was drawn to that smile, he feared it. It was too knowing, too . . . Something.

Ridiculous, he told himself, struggling to make his brain work again. She was a woman asking for help. Perhaps the heat was getting to him. Why had he been standing by the wagon? "I was waiting for you-"

"You didn't have to," she said, obviously unaware or indifferent to what had passed between her husband and the stranger. "Raul could have escorted me home."

He tensed at the name. The thorn in his side. The reason for Victoria's growing distance from him. "Well, I'll be going then," he said stiffly. He congratulated himself for not snarling at her. He turned to leave when his manners reasserted themselves. "Victoria, let me introduce you to _Señora _Tepes." He found himself unable to meet the new lady's eyes again. "She left some luggage here that she wishes to retrieve. _Señora_ Tepes, this is the owner of this fine establishment, Victoria de la Vega. She is also my wife."

Victoria visibly tensed at the word "wife". He wished they were alone so he could ask her to accept her fate. They were married now. She had the de la Vega heir in her belly. Could she not find happiness with him? They used to be friends before they were married. Why couldn't they be that now? If he could not have her love, he would settle for friendship.

She politely shook hands with the alluring stranger. "If you will follow me, _Señora_ Tepes, I will introduce you to Raul, and he can tell you where we have stored your luggage."

"Please, call me Tasia. My husband and I will be living in the area," she told them.

"You moved into _Don_ Vidal's _hacienda_?" Diego asked, suddenly dreading the answer. He wanted miles between him and this woman, not the few dozen acres that were between his home and _Don_ Vidal's.

Tasia nodded. "Yes, we have. Please, _Señor _de la Vega, let me buy you-and your wife-a drink as an apology."

Victoria looked up at him. "An apology?"

"I mistakenly thought your husband was your employee," Tasia explained. The strain on Victoria's face deepened for reasons he didn't understand. He knew his wife was not the social snob the lady before him was.

"Honestly, _Señora _Tasia_, _it is unimportant. In Los Angeles, everyone helps out where they are needed," Diego answered, keeping his hand on the small of Victoria's back and trying to keep Tasia's eyes out of his line of sight.

Her laughter was as musical as her voice. "Of course, _Señor,_ but it is strange to me. I have been shown an entirely different way of life since I came to the Americas from Europe. The lines of class are blurred here. I admit, I cannot decide if it is better. Life was simpler, I think, when everyone had a well-defined role to play, and they played it."

Diego thought of his own courtship with Victoria, and the roles he had played. In many ways, it had been the hardest and the simplest of times for him. He knew what Victoria expected of him in both his roles. Now confusion and doubt about her desires plagued him. Did she still love Zorro? Did she still like Diego? Somehow he doubted the answer was "yes" to either of those questions. "I agree, _Señora _Tasia."

His wife stiffened even more, although he doubted the stranger could see her displeasure. "Perhaps you and _Señora _Tasia could have your drinks while I arrange for her luggage to be loaded on her carriage, Diego."

"Please say yes, _Señor_."

"Diego," he told her even as he wondered why he was asking for a familiarity he did not want. He yearned to run from this woman and the strange feelings she aroused in him. "I'd be honored," he found himself saying, agreeing to a drink he did not desire. What he wanted was to take his wife home. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to hear her laugh again.

Victoria turned away and left them alone to enter the tavern. Diego found them a table and waited for the mysterious _señora_ to have a seat. Sitting down, he looked around the room for Victoria, but she was nowhere to be found. Neither was Raul. Diego's stomach rolled.

"Your wife runs a clean establishment here," Tasia said as she pulled off her gloves. "It was the nicest tavern in the territory in which we have stayed."

Diego nodded. "Victoria's Tavern is known throughout for its cleanliness and service. But my wife no longer does the day-to-day running of it. She has hired a manager."

"Raul," Tasia sighed. "We met him the night we arrived; he was so kind. And so handsome." Every woman had that to say about Raul. He was almost as tall as Diego, but his chest was twice as big. His elfin face should have looked odd on his muscular body, but instead it made him even more handsome. Diego had nearly bumped into a few ladies who had stopped to stare at the man, and he had heard that one of their English guests had written a poem about Raul's emerald eyes.

"Yes, that's Raul," he agreed. He did not spit the words out, even though he wanted to do so. He continued to smile, even as he wanted to scream. "Ah, Teresa, how are you doing today?"

The young barmaid standing by their table grinned. "I'm doing wonderfully, _Don _Diego," she shared. "My beau asked me to marry him last night."

"Congratulations!" Diego returned her smile. Joy flowed from Teresa, and he couldn't resist her happiness, even in his misery.

"Thank you," Teresa giggled. "I'm hoping to be as happy as you and _Doña _Victoria."

Diego's grin faltered, but he recovered it before she could notice. "I hope you have all the joy and the happiness I had on my wedding day."

"Thank you," she said. As if remembering where she was and what she was supposed to be doing, she stood up straighter and asked them what they would like to drink.

"I would like a small glass of your wine," Tasia ordered. A small smile remained on her lips, and Diego's curiosity wanted to know why she always had that content all-knowing expression. It reminded him of a satisfied cat.

He hesitated for a moment. He usually ordered water or a fruit juice, but today he felt the need for something stronger. "Make that two, Teresa." The barmaid's eyebrows shot up, but she said nothing before leaving to get their order.

"Los Angeles seems to be a friendly _pueblo_," Tasia said after their drinks arrived.

"It is," Diego answered before taking a long sip from his glass.

She played with her glass, gently rubbing her fingers across the rim. "Have you lived here all your life?"

"Most of it," Diego answered, fascinated by the movement of her hands on the glass. "I lived in Spain ten years ago while I went to the university."

"Really?" she said in surprise. "Why did you come back?"

His eyes met hers and his heart began pumping harder. "This is my home. It is what I love. I admit that I'm further behind on current scientific research than I would like, but I could never live anywhere else."

Tasia nodded and took a small sip of wine. "I wish I understood that feeling. I think I did long ago, but it has been many years since I considered any place 'home'."

"I'm sorry to hear that." He meant it. Even with everything that was wrong for him right now, he could not imagine a world where he did not have a place to call home, a place like Los Angeles.

She smiled. "Listening to you, I think I am sorry, too. Maybe I will find a home here."

"You're not planning on staying?" He knew that _Don_ Vidal would never sell his _hacienda_, but he assumed she was staying there while she found someplace more permanent.

Laughing, she shook her head. "I cannot remember the last place I moved to expecting to stay. I recently spent several years at a beautiful little estate outside of the Fortaleza del Diablo-"

"The Devil's Fortress? Nasty place," Diego said, remembering his visit to the prison. Occasionally, his nightmares reminded him of the look on Ramone's face as he fell to his death.

Tasia nodded. "The prison itself was, but the area surrounding it was wonderful. After the prisoners escaped, I felt such fear-I'm afraid I had to move. No place I've lived since has felt the same."

"I'm sorry." To his surprise, he reached over and laid his hand on hers.

She looked down at their hands. "Have you ever been there, Diego?"

"To the Devil's Fortress?" His blood sang so loudly, he almost forgot that Diego had never been there. Zorro had, but not Diego. The roles he played sometimes confused him, but Victoria had preferred the acts to the truth. "N-n-n-no, I haven't. My wife has been there once-only she was not my wife then. H-her father died there." He never stuttered; he sounded like a schoolboy with his first crush.

"I am sorry. I heard the horror stories of that place," Tasia told him, a small shudder coursing through her body. Diego resisted the urge to stand and hug her close, to comfort her.

He caressed her hand. "Yes, it was a horrible place. He did not deserve to die there."

"At least he saw his daughter-he had not already passed before she arrived?" Tasia moved her hand above his and lightly stroked it.

Diego watched her fingers move over the back of his hand, entranced by the light touch. He nodded. "Yes, she arrived before he died. Barely. She had to see him die in that dirty jail cell. I wish I had been there, had somehow freed him at least a day before. He should have been allowed to die in clean surroundings with his loved ones around him."

"I understand," her soft melodic voice told him as he watched her fingers travel across his. "I hope she had a good friend with her. Your father, perhaps?"

Diego shook his head. "N-no, my father couldn't travel. He'd fallen from his horse and sprained his ankle. Sergeant Mendoza and our _alcalde_ went with her."

"More wine?" Teresa snapped, bringing Diego out of his trance. He jerked his hand away, and lowered his head when he saw the disappointment in the waitress' eyes.

"No, Teresa, I think I've had enough," he told her.

"I also have had enough for now. I'm sure the luggage must be loaded. Good day, Diego." Standing, Tasia nodded her head and swayed across the room to the door. Even with Teresa watching, Diego was unable to keep his gaze away from the new lady.

"An interesting woman," Victoria said from beside him.

He flinched, startled by her presence. Looking at her, he could see the disappointment in her eyes. Her brown beautiful orbs used to be filled with love and laughter; now, they held pain and misery. "Yes, she is," he said, clasping his hands behind his back. "Are you ready to head home?" The swishing of skirts alerted Diego to Teresa's departure.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm ready. I've already told Raul goodbye."

Diego forced his fingers to relax. _Don_ Diego could not be seen punching a man, even if he greatly deserved it. "Good; I'm sure Maria already has supper waiting for us."

"I'm sure," Victoria said as they walked out the door. Outside, she pulled herself into the carriage, ignoring Diego's offered hand. He sighed and climbed into their transportation. His wife arranged her skirt so that even it was not touching him. Their driver, talking to his friends on the front porch, noticed they were ready and rushed over to take them home.

"You know, Diego," she finally said to him. Her voice was barely a whisper above the pounding of the horses' hooves and the creaking of the wheels. "If you thought everyone should stay in their place, you should not have married below yourself."

Diego turned to stare at her. "What?"

"You agree with Tasia that it is nice when everyone stays in their place," she snapped, her eyes flashing. At last something else besides listlessness and pain that had been there for far too long.

"That's not what I said." He struggled to find the words to explain his feelings, but Victoria turned away from him, letting him know the conversation was over. The all-too-familiar silence escorted them home.

Z Z Z

Tasia carefully worked the cream into her skin. The sun didn't cause them to melt as the old legends claimed, but its affects were felt. Even the few minutes she had spent out in it today had caused a mild sunburn. Innocenzio, being much younger, would have been covered in welts had he gone today.

She smiled at him when he walked into the bedroom. "I am sorry, my dear, but I am afraid you will have to be bedridden."

"Not just too weak to leave the house?" he asked as he bent over to kiss her.

"No, not here. Not in Los Angeles."

He pulled away, a frown between his brows. "Why?"

"I do not want you seen," she replied. She stood up from the bench and walked towards her wardrobe, her silk dressing gown billowing around her. "I think you may be known here."

Instead of excitement, she saw anger on his face. He sniffed, grabbing her arm and pulling her to him. His nose tickled the delicate skin of her wrist. "You have touched another man today. I can smell him on you."

"Very good. Your sense of smell is improving." He ground his teeth but said nothing. He knew her, and knew he had no authority over her. She smiled as she watched him hold back his demand that she stay away from every man but him. Jealousy—usually such a silly, ugly emotion. But her stomach fluttered at the sight of it on Innocenzio.

"His blood sang to me," she whispered, taking a step closer to her lover. "Sang to me so loudly."

While Innocenzio might be new to her world, he understood. "So you are going to bring someone new into our home."

"My home," she reminded him, pulling her hand from his grasp. "My home, my rules."

He swallowed down his fury and nodded. "I know. I just—don't like to share."

She would rather walk through fire than admit to him that where he was concerned, she felt the same way. "Fortunately for you, I'm not ready to leave this place yet, and his loss would attract too much attention to us. His wife owns the tavern."

"His _wife_ owns the tavern?" He rolled his eyes. "He doesn't sound like the kind of man you prefer."

"No," she admitted as she picked out a new dress for the night. "But there was something—"

Her body sang again as she remembered the feel of his hands on hers. "His father is the largest land holder in the area. He is an only child. He married an inn keeper instead of someone worthy of his station, and talking to a sergeant today, I got the impression that he is one of those people that is unwilling to fight."

"A coward," Innocenzio spat.

She looked down at her hand. "No, I do not think so. I could feel the power in him. He is greatly admired by everyone."

"Admired?"

"He is one of those people."

"Those people?" She saw understanding come to him a moment later. Innocenzio laughed that wonderfully dry chuckle of his. "Ah, one of those people."

"Yes," she sighed, stepping into his arms. "One of those people who believe they should leave the world a better place. It would be fun to corrupt such a man, Innocenzio."

"But we need to stay here," he said, failing to hide his relief.

"Yes," she said. "We cannot corrupt de la Vega—yet—because we need to stay here."

"De la Vega?"

"Did I forget to mention that part?" she asked with a false innocence that no one would believe.

Finally, the excitement she expected earlier flared in those eyes. "You think it might be—"

"Maybe," she answered. "Which is why you need to stay 'bedridden' for our stay in Los Angeles."

"Well, I admit," he said as he pulled her in for a kiss. "I have always liked being ridden in bed."

Z Z Z

After dinner, Diego found himself in the cave. He had not planned to ride as Zorro tonight. He usually rode when he knew something was about to happen or knew that some bandits were in the area, but he did occasionally ride just to make his presence felt. Tonight he was riding away from something. He would be running away from his enemy, but his demons were one enemy he could not outrace.

But he had to try.

As he dressed, he missed Felipe. He selfishly wished the young man were here to help him. Felipe had spent too much of his life looking after Diego. Now, he was in Spain studying for his law degree and taking a tour of Europe before returning to California to live.

But he could use a caring ear right now.

"Hello, boy," he said as he patted his mute companion. "I promise not to talk about Victoria tonight. At least not too much."

Tornado ran beneath him as if the lancers were following them. Dust swirled behind them, leaving an opaque trail in the moonlit air, but Diego's demons stayed with him, buried deep in his heart. The day he married Victoria had been the happiest day in his life. He thought it had been hers, too. Then everything changed. Zorro failed her, and the man behind the mask apparently wasn't enough for her to love.

He finally pulled up on Tornado's reins when they were on _Don_ Fernado's land. Diego remembered last month's party. They had been celebrating the birthday of _Dońa_ Abegail, but bandits had robbed the coach. Since Zorro had to ride to find them, Diego asked Victoria to tell _Don_ Alejandro that she was ill so they could miss the party. However, it had not only been an excuse. The next morning, she told them that she was expecting.

He had wanted to scream, to yell, to laugh. He wanted to twirl his wife around the room. He wanted to make love to her. Instead, after he saw the look of unhappiness on her face, he had spent the entire breakfast talking about the furniture they needed to buy to prepare the nursery.

Tornado stopped, jarring Diego from his dark thoughts. He started to ask what was wrong, when he saw the answer himself. The legs sticking out from behind the boulder had caught Tornado's notice, and they now had his rider's attention. Death had made a calling in the area.

Z Z Z


	3. Chapter 3

"What?" Diego sputtered when Doctor Hernandez told him. "No blood?"

"Not a drop, Diego. That's why I thought I should talk to you," the silver-haired man said with a sigh. "I know that you are always reading journals from Spain, and I thought maybe you had read of a disease that could explain it."

Diego shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not, Doctor. I hope it's not something that could pass on to other cattle. _Don_ Fernado's lands are close enough to our own that our stock may be in danger."

Hernandez took a long drink from his glass of juice. "I admit that when _Don_ Fernando asked me to take a look at the animal, I thought he was _loco_."

"I imagine you did." Diego had seen a human autopsy while in Spain. The man's neck had been broken when the authorities had hung him. The thought it being done on an animal struck him as odd.

The doctor leaned forward. "I think he thought DeSoto might be responsible."

"Really?" Diego frowned. "That doesn't sound like our dear _alcalde_."

"No," Hernandez sighed, "But _Don_ Fernando lost all respect for the office of _alcalde_ after Ramone abused it, and DeSoto has done nothing to endear himself."

"I understand that feeling." Diego offered his glass up in a toast, which Hernandez matched after a moment's hesitation. More than one man had been arrested for daring to insult the _alcalde_ in the tavern. The small clinking of their glasses brought Victoria's attention to their table. Diego's heart smiled happily when she sat down beside him.

"Interesting discussion, gentlemen?" She poured herself a glass from the pitcher. Her face was flushed, and Diego thought she should be home resting, but her time spent at the tavern had increased since she hired Raul.

Hernandez shifted uneasily at her question, but Diego had no qualms telling her. She had seen and heard worse during her days as an innkeeper, and she was married to a scientist. "Zorro discovered a dead cow last night, and when Hernandez dissected it, he found out that it did not have any blood."

"How is that possible?" she asked, her eyebrows drawn into a frown. Her curiosity matched his. It was one reason why they were so well suited. Or one of the reasons why Diego had thought they would be.

"That is what we were discussing, my dear," he told her. "We don't know of any way it could be possible."

Hernandez chuckled. "I'm sure Zorro would let _Don_ Fernando know in a different way if he had to do it over again."

Victoria's soft smile left her face. "What do you mean?"

"He rode right up to the front door and knocked!"

Diego saw Victoria's hand tremble before she hid it in her skirts. "But the _alcalde_ was dining there last night."

"Exactly! The entire _pueblo_ knew he was to be there-except for Zorro apparently." Hernandez chuckled. "I hear he gave DeSoto and his soldiers a merry chase. Mendoza said they had never gotten so close before."

"Zorro risked his life over a dead cow," Victoria said flatly.

Z Z Z

"A dead cow, Diego!" she exploded. He had the impression if she had been holding something in her hand it would have been hurled at his head. "You risked your life for a dead cow!"

She had been silent the entire trip home. He had grown used to it over the last few months-ever since Raul arrived and Victoria had nearly died protecting Zorro. Now, he wanted to laugh. She still cared. Maybe she did not love him, but she still cared.

"I did not risk my life for a dead cow. I knew I could outrace them," he told her.

She took a step back in surprise. "You knew that the _alcalde_ and his troops were there."

"Of course," he answered, surprised she hadn't realized it before. He made it his mission to know everything that happened in Los Angeles—especially where the alcalde was concerned.

Crossing her arms, she turned away and walked to the window. "You deliberately risked your life for a lark. How could you? In case you have forgotten, you have a little one on the way."

"One thing you can be certain that I will never forget is that we are having a child," he said through teeth that refused to open. He forced himself to breathe.

She turned to look at him, her shoulders drooped in defeat. "I don't think you acted like it last night. Or do you want our baby to be born without a father?" She walked out of the room without sparing him another glance. Diego sank down onto the bed and wished for the happier times to return.

Z Z Z

Blood sprayed across her hand as the back of it hit Robert's face. "You imbecile! You left the cow for anyone to find."

"I'm afraid that is my fault," Innocenzio said, stepping forward from the shadows.

"Your fault," she snarled, grabbing him by the throat.

He somehow managed to nod. "I told Robert to dispose of it so."

She let him go, pushing him away from her. "I know you did not expect the doctor to do such a ridiculous procedure on a cow-"

"No, but I expected de la Vega would make sure it was thoroughly examined," he answered.

She turned to stare at him. "You knew that someone would discover the cow was empty of blood, and you still told Robert to discard the body in an obvious place."

"I want them frightened, on edge," he said, taking a step forward.

Her hand balled into a tight fist, and she barely restrained her impulse to hit him. "You want them frightened? Why? What makes you believe they would be frightened? This is not Romania."

He shook his head. "No, it is not, but everyone fears the unknown, my lady. I know now that my answers are here, but I also know this is the place of my enemies."

Her eyebrow arched. "Your enemies? You never said that even about the Devil's Fortress-a place where neither de la Vega visited."

His eyes gleamed with obsession. That gleam had been present ever since she told him about her encounter with a man bearing the last name of de la Vega. "One of them lies."

"You seem certain." She took a step closer. "Certain of a fact you have no way of knowing."

"I know." He walked closer, picking up her bloodstained hand. He brought it to his mouth and gently began to lick it clean. "Every since you told me the name 'de la Vega', the past has started to return to me. It's still hidden by a dense fog, but I know that de la Vega was my enemy. And I know he watched me 'die'."

She pulled her cleaned hand away. Was this jealousy or was he correct? Was he trying to prevent her from turning de la Vega into a vampire? Or was he just trying to find the answers he'd craved for so long? "You did not die there."

"No, my love," he answered. His beautiful eyes held her in their grasp. "I died in your arms, where I wanted to be."

"Simone and her brother brought you to me," she murmured, briefly lost in the past. They had often brought her goods from the prison. The guards for a few _pesos_ would gleefully hand over the near dead, telling their commander that the prisoners had died and been buried. It had been the best time of eating in her life. She hated to leave, but after Innocenzio's conversion, she had feared that a prison guard would recognize him and take him back to the prison. Although, because of his clothing, it was hard to believe he had been a prisoner.

She wondered if Los Angeles had been his home. Perhaps it was time to talk to the alcalde or that sergeant. De la Vega had claimed those two went to the Devil's Fortress with his darling little wife to be. "De la Vega claimed that neither he nor his father went to the fortress."

"He _lies,_" Innocenzio hissed.

She watched him for a moment. So confident of what he couldn't possibly know. "De la Vega does not seem the type."

Innocenzio rubbed his temple. Still so human acting. "I know. Some part of me thinks he's an annoying do-gooder while another part of me _knows _that he's more than he seems."

She thought of that delicious power she felt surround him. Power flowed from him like a giant waterfall. He was definitely more than this _pueblo_ knew him to be. She ran her tongue over her teeth. Oh, to just be able to taste.

But she had important business in Los Angeles. Business that could not be endangered due to desire for a delicious morsel. Or desire for revenge on an old enemy of a lover.

In the blink of an eye, she withdrew her knife and pushed her lover into the wall. She inhaled the delicious aroma of iron as the knife cut into his throat.

"I rewarded Simone and her brother handsomely for bring you to me," she said.

He showed no fear. Foolish vampire. "I know."

She had finally agreed to convert her long-time employees after finding Robert. It made her nervous being in a new place with only a new servant to watch over her, but she had done it for him. She had to admit he was working out wonderfully. His haughty English attitude, the one only an English servant could perfect, kept most of the day employees too angry to ask questions.

"I reward people who treat me right." She pressed the knife harder. "And I punish people who treat me wrong."

Pain filled his eyes. Not physical. Not from the pain of the knife but from her words. Damn his too human eyes. "I never meant to wrong you."

"You put us in possible danger without asking me. Do not do it again." She hated to be harsh with him, but she had no desire to suffer her first lover's fate.

"I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I let an old anger guide me." His eyes held shame. She seemed to be the only one who could cause him to feel such an emotion.

She let him go and thought for a moment. "We don't have much time to discover your past. I presume that those you left behind suppose you to be dead. You truly believe this was your home?"

Her blond lover shuddered. "No, it was never my home. A prison perhaps. But I know this place. And I know the de la Vegas. I can find my history here, Tasia."

She stared at him for a moment. "I have made plans, Innocenzio. Plans that I cannot have upset at this late a date."

He closed his eyes and nodded. She grabbed his chin and forced him to look her in the eye. "We will find your history, if it is really here. But we will do it my way. And that way is very carefully."

He nodded, relief in those eyes. She turned to the silent man still standing beside the table. "Have you looked in the graveyard, Robert?"

Her servant nodded. He knew better than to wipe the blood from his face or even act like he was in pain. It was undignified. "Yes, madam, I have. The only memorial in the graveyard from the year Innocenzio was brought to you was for a young boy."

"Pity," she sighed. It would make it much easier if we had your name."

"A memorial? Why would they put up a memorial? They had no body," Innocenzio protested.

She laughed. "I know you don't remember your life as a human, but if you did, you would understand. Humans are strange creatures. They mourn loss, with or without a body."

"Perhaps they did not consider my death a loss."

She thought for a moment and then nodded. "Perhaps. Especially if you are right and this _pueblo_ was your prison. De la Vega said that Victoria, Mendoza, and the _alcalde_ went to the fortress. I will speak with the _alcalde_; he will eventually tell me what I want to know about the Devil's Fortress. He's a vain man who believes he is much smarter than he actually is."

Z Z Z

He felt her presence before he heard her exclaiming, "That is terrible!"

Turning, he could see her walking in the moonlight with DeSoto. The gossips in the _pueblo_ were busy. A married woman and their leader caused much discussion but little action. No one had met her husband. Raul had only seen a man covered in a cape stagger up the steps when they arrived at dawn at the tavern, and too busy to notice anything when they left. The few servants who worked in the house stated that the poor man never left his bed.

Tasia. She had made her presence felt in their small society quickly. Her love of fashion and proper manners set well with a select group of ladies, and they had welcomed her into their tight-knit group. Diego remembered when his mother had kept any group from behaving as those ladies did.

He disliked spending any time with them. Which didn't explain the dreams. The fantasies that his imagination wove around that woman. The mere thought of having a conversation with her made him ill, but his body yearned to mingle. A fact that made him hate himself.

"Diego," she called as they stepped onto the tavern's porch.

"Tasia, _Alcalde_," he said as he nodded his head. He wanted to gather his wife and run far away from this woman.

"It's a beautiful night," he said.

She licked her lips, making them glisten in the moonlight. "Indeed it is," she agreed. "I think the view is spectacular."

Only years of manners forced into him by his mother, his father, and his tutors kept him from running away. "I see that you seem to be fitting in Los Angeles. Have you decided it could be a home?"

Her laughter promised delights he couldn't understand. "Perhaps. I believe Los Angeles will bring me something I've always wanted."

"Really?"

"Yes," she said, not bothering to explain. She turned to look at her companion. "Ignacio was telling me about the cattle. The poor ranchers."

Diego nodded, noting the false sympathy that oozed in her voice. "So far only a few have been affected, but it could become worse before it gets better."

"Have you and your father lost any cattle, Diego?"

He shook his head. "No, we have been most fortunate."

"Odd that it missed you," the _alcalde_ mused. "Since the first one was found near the border of your land."

"As Diego said, we have been most fortunate," Alejandro said as he joined them outside.

Tasia's smirk seemed to say it was more than luck that was keeping the de la Vegas free of the plague bothering their neighbors. "Most fortunate. Victoria, it's good to see you again."

"Tasia," his wife replied. Diego knew he should look at her but he found it hard to look away from the siren.

"I was telling your dear husband that I might just make Los Angeles my home. The closest place I've ever called home was an area outside of Devil's Fortress. Diego told me that you once visited it."

Victoria's voice would have chilled a fire. "Yes, I did. My father died there."

"As did my predecessor," injected DeSoto.

"Your predecessor?" Tasia turned her attention away from Diego, and he inhaled a deep breath as if released from a tight net. "Diego did mention that the _alcalde_ and someone else-"

"Sergeant Mendoza," his father offered.

"Oh, yes. Your predecessor." Tasia's lips lacked the all-knowing smile that usually resided there. "He was killed?"

"In a fall," Alejandro said. No one in the town had mourned his death. Even Diego, who should have been overwhelmed by guilt, had instead enjoyed the sensation of being free. He had even gone to France for a last spree before coming home to the new _alcalde_. He left expecting to be married to Victoria within a year.

"A fall?"

"Yes, from a tower at the fortress. No one knows why he was up there or how he fell." DeSoto's bored voice reminded everyone why no investigation had occurred. Zorro's name had never been mentioned; as far as Diego knew, Victoria and Mendoza told no one about the masked man's presence.

"How horrible," Tasia said. Her revulsion, like her earlier sympathy, lacked a certain heart-felt quality.

The guilt he had failed to feel immediately after Ramone's death occasionally haunted him now. The thud of his enemy striking the ground was one sound he would never forget. He looked over at Victoria and saw a flash of understanding before she looked away. It was enough to get him through the conversation.

Z Z Z

"Robert tells me that the hysteria in Los Angeles continues to grow," Innocenzio said to Tasia at dinner one night. The former Luis Ramone had continued his little game. She allowed him, even though she knew she shouldn't. Instinct, common sense as the humans would call it, demanded that they remain carefully hidden away. However, a part of her enjoyed it, too.

And the terror could be used to her advantage later.

She set down her glass. "Yes, it does. As you expected, the unknown has terrified them. De la Vega and the doctor are hard at work trying to explain it, but the good peasants have already found their own answer for the bloodless cows that continue to plague them."

Innocenzio raised his eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. She loved when he looked at her with expectation. He always expected her to have the answers. She usually did. "God has cursed them."

He laughed. His memories remained vague, but his growing knowledge of the area was helping him. And her. "God gives the blood, and he taketh away."

Nodding, she tried to smile. She should be laughing at the stupidity of the humans. Usually, she would. The silly creatures often amused her-so intelligent and so stupid.

"What is wrong, my love?"

She stood, waving Robert from the room. "We have discovered your past. You are slowly beginning to remember it. That pleases me." More than it should.

"But?"

"I thought it would have happened by now," she whispered. So many years of waiting. When the location had finally fallen within her grasp, she had thought the battle would start almost immediately.

"What should have happened?"

"The battle," she whispered, longing to share with him what had been her secret for so long.

"The battle?" Innocenzio leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "You are preparing for a fight. Is that why we have so many guests staying in various caves?"

Fury flashed through her body. "You know—"

"I have eyes, and I watch every move you make, my love. Besides I've noticed your subtle questions about my memory of the topography of the area." He stood up and walked behind her. He began rubbing her shoulders. She actually relaxed as he continued to massage her. She was not human, had not been human for more than five centuries, but this new one's behavior was rubbing off on her.

She forced herself to walk away from his touch. She could not afford to be vulnerable, especially now. The time was too close for her to be weak. She would soon have what she had always yearned for, what her first lover had told her she was destined to have.

"You can trust me, Tasia."

Her smile was bitter. "I trust no one, Innocenzio. Not even you."

He flinched. "I love you."

"Love is a silly emotion, and those who suffer from it do not always act in the best interests of those they love. If they did, the human race would be worth saving."

"Saving? From what?"

"Me," she replied, giving away more information than she intended.

He pressed against her and she could feel his excitement. "Let me help."

"Because you love me?" her words were mocking. She ignored how they tried to stay in her throat.

The flash of pain and anger she saw excited her, even as she felt cut from the pain. "No. Because I want to destroy these people. Just as they destroyed me."

Leaning forward, she nibbled on his ear. "Your memory has not returned. You don't know who is innocent and who is not."

"I don't care," he said, pulling her away from him by her hair. "I want to raze this _pueblo_ to the ground. I want the de la Vegas watching as I do."

"You want them alive?" Disappointment danced through her arousal.

"Only long enough to know I helped destroy everything they love," he whispered and the disappointment left. His mouth crushed down on hers and she forgot about battles. For a little while.

Z Z Z

Aldrick smiled when he saw Esperanza stalk towards him. Most of his kind feared him. Even the humans treated him with cautious respect, sensing his power, even if they did not understand it. Those that did know and understood always trembled before him. Except Esperanza.

Which made her the perfect choice to replace him. If she passed the test. He refused to shiver. He had not felt cold for centuries, and he would not give in to the nameless dread that had plagued him for years.

It was time. The prophecy of the old ones would finally come to pass. Unfortunately, they had not bothered to say who would win the first battle.

"You know I hate the new world, Aldrick," she told him as she stopped before him. The cloak partially concealed her face, but he could see the concern there. She glanced over her shoulder. "There are too few people here. Too many who are willing to give in to superstitious fear. It is dangerous for our kind."

"Yes, I know, my dear," he told her as he started to walk. He headed towards the fountain. The sound of water had always soothed him, even as a child. A part of his mind laughed at his need. Cynicism was the trademark of an old vampire. He wondered if the realization he would soon die had caused him to lose that air of ennui. If Esperanza succeeded in her task, he would only have a mere century more to live. He wanted to enjoy those hundred years instead of being bored by them.

Esperanza stayed silent as long as she could. He hid his grin as he saw her slowly start to lose her patience. Well, not so slowly. "Why have you called me here, Aldrick? You said it was important."

She stopped walking and turned to look at him. Her hands were clenched and tightly held against her hips. Her cloak parted in the middle, revealing the lovely figure beneath that she usually kept hidden. Even after all this time, she could not forgive how men had treated her mother. "I won't let any man treat me that way," she had snarled at him once in those first few months he had trained her. Aldrick suspected she had a much harder time forgiving her mother for allowing men to treat her so.

"It is important. End-of-the-earth-as-we-know-it important."

Esperanza snorted. "You aren't the type to exaggerate, Aldrick. It doesn't suit you."

His eyebrow lifted, an old, barely remembered habit from his human days. Knowing the end was near really was having its effect on him. "No, it does not."

She lost her smile when she realized that he would not joke about something so important, but then he did not often joke about things that were unimportant. She wrapped her arms around herself. He knew she was refusing to give into a shiver, too. Being in control was even more important to her than it was to him.

"It is time," he simply said as he turned and walked away from her.

In a few minutes, she joined him at the fountain. He opened his eyes and studied her. She had been his student for years, but he suspected that she had even more power than he did. She was just unaware of it. It was time in more ways than one. After this battle, Esperanza would begin to realize her own destiny, even though some undefined instinct told him that she would only be a secondary figure in the battle directly ahead. A major player in the rest of the war. If she survived.

"Time for what?" she demanded, startling him from his musings.

He ran his hand through the cold water, wishing he could feel the chill. When he first became a vampire, the idea of not feeling cold or heat had sounded wonderful. Now he missed it. The years had showed him that there was always a cost. Every advantage had a disadvantage.

"For the battle between humans and vampires to see who should control the world." He continued to swirl his hand around the water, watching it flow around his hand. He could leave no lasting impression on the water, no matter how much he tried. He could only hope that vampires had the same lack of success with humans.

Esperanza shook her head. "I really wish you had a sense of humor, Aldrick. A nice, sick sense of humor."

"I do, too," he answered her. Sighing, he pulled his hand away from the water. He saw the moonlight reflecting in his finger nails. "I'd rather believe that the upcoming events were the wonderfully inventive tales of the old ones."

"Who is going to be the leader? I don't know of any one vampire that could lead the battle." She shook her head. "You have to be wrong, Aldrick. The vampires have been their own worst enemy. Fighting amongst themselves keeps-"

"Them at bay. Yes, I know, Esperanza. I'm the one who warned you to never trust a vampire. Remember?" He had taught her how to survive in their treacherous world.

She laughed, but the sound held no joy. "You not only warned me, you showed me by example."

She stood and walked away from him. He studied the graceful curve of her neck, how the moonlight played in her raven hair, the stiffness of her shoulders. He walked behind her and put his hands on her shoulder. It was the first time he had touched her in centuries. They had never, in all the years, discussed their short relationship.

"I did what I had to do to protect you," he told her.

"Right after you left, I lay in our bed as dawn approached and almost believed that lie to be true," she answered. Shaking her head, she turned and looked up at him. "Then I realized you were only doing what men do."

"I am not like the men who abused your mother," he almost snarled. Only she had ever had the power to get to him emotionally. Even as a human, he had distanced himself from others.

She stared at him for a moment. "Enough about the ancient past. About the-"

"Tasia," he answered.

Esperanza smiled. "She's been here in the New World for-"

"Where she has been steadily working out her plans, ignored by everyone but those whose attention she wanted. She has decided to lead a revolt against myself and the other ancients," he informed her.

"Without you watching over the humans," she realized, "then, she and her followers could take over the earth."

"Yes, she could and would," he answered her. "Humans are so easily manipulated by us, by our powers, by their own fears."

"But I thought that The One in Dark-"

"He is of age," he interrupted. It did not take long for new vampires to hear of The One in Dark. He was a legend in a people thought to be legends.

Esperanza looked at him in horror. "You knew when he was born."

"We sensed his power when it was added to the world. It was an incredible rush." He could still remember the tingling in his fingers, the pounding of his heart. He had known immediately what had happened, even as he knew what would one day center on the newly born human.

"Why didn't you kill him?" she demanded to know.

He put his hand on her cheek, and again yearned for the ability to feel heat and cold. "We did not even know where he was."

"But you could have hunted him down. I would have killed him for you," she said. "Aldrick, the ancient ones' prophecies said he would be a destroyer."

"Of us? Possibly. Or a destroyer of Tasia. Or perhaps something else entirely. Prophecies would be so much better if they spoke in plain language, don't you think?"

"Why take the chance?" He saw the concern in her eyes, and knew that at least some of it was for him. Even after all these years, after all the pain he caused her, she still cared for him. As he cared for her.

He tried to find the words to explain. "Esperanza, if we had tried to kill him, we might have led him to do what we didn't want to be done."

"I don't understand," she whispered. "If he were dead-"

He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and remembered the first time he saw her. He had caressed away a tear that night, but there could be no more tears for her. She lacked the physical ability to cry now. Advantages had their disadvantages. Disadvantages have their advantages. Balance. It was the way of the world.

"If he were dead, we would not know about Tasia's plan. A few months ago, all the ancient ones began to feel the power centering on The One in Dark. It led us to him, to a place known as Los Angeles, and to Tasia." He had been the one to realize what was happening. The others had wanted to deny it-some still were-but enough agreed with him. He would be allowed to send in Esperanza to help.

"Besides, if we had tried to kill him when he was a babe, we might have set in motion the very actions that led him to destroy us. A self-fulfilling prophecy," he finished.

Esperanza walked away from him and stared up at the moon. "Who are you all going to send in to stop Tasia?"

"You used to not be so slow to make connections, my dear," he said with a small joyless grin.

She spun on her heels and stared at him. "You cannot be serious. Me against Tasia? I'm but a baby compared to her."

"It is your destiny," was all he could tell her.

ZZZ


	4. Chapter 4

Diego watched as his father twirled Victoria across the dance floor. His arms ached to hold his wife. He wanted to be the one to dance with her. Taking a sip of wine, he remembered their earlier dance. Conversation had been stilted. Movement had been jerky. He had been fifteen the first time he danced with Victoria, so why was it so hard, so unnatural, now?

She laughed at something _Don_ Alejandro said to her. Diego's heart beat quicker. Natural laughter and joy were something she seldom shared with him anymore. Even in the bedroom, they had lost that special fire. Watching her, yearning for her, he wondered if he would ever find that with her again.

A hand touched his shoulder. His muscles tensed. He recognized her scent. Tasia. A woman whom he loathed for her attitude towards life. Unfortunately, he also lusted after her with an intensity he could not even begin to understand. He forced a smile to his lips.

"Your wife is looking radiantly beautiful, _Don_ Diego," she told him as she stood beside him. A shudder coursed through his body at the sound of her voice.

He took a sip of his wine. "Yes, she is." She did look radiantly beautiful. Her stomach was rounded and her face fuller, but Diego thought that pregnancy suited Victoria. She glowed. As long as he was not close to her. When she was with him, she lost that sparkle.

"A wonderful party, _Doña_ Tasia." Diego had never been so happy to see Ignacio DeSoto in his life. The _alcalde_ had been escorting Tasia to various social functions for the last two months. Her bed-ridden husband never left the _hacienda_ nor did he entertain guests. Many believed it would be a matter of weeks, if not days, before Tasia was a widow. _Don_Alejandro had said at breakfast that he believed DeSoto to be in love. Tasia, on the other hand, seemed more amused than anything. It was obvious to all that she had no special feelings for the man to whom she was married.

Diego's manners reasserted themselves. "Yes, it is a wonderful party, _Doña_ Tasia. It's good to see everyone laughing again."

DeSoto sighed. "Yes, I am getting tired of hearing about dead cows." His eyes dared Diego to utter a word of protest. DeSoto had met with several of the largest land owners in the area. He'd ordered his lancers to explore every inch of the affected areas for some sign of an animal that could drain another of blood.

Of course, DeSoto's precautions were done with the utmost secrecy. He'd even written the governor's office requesting aide. So far no one had admitted that the government was researching the cause so diligently. As long as the losses remained small, the leaders of the area were going to pretend there was no problem to help maintain morale.

"It is the talk of the area," Diego agreed.

"Yes," Tasia agreed with a grin on her lips. "Everyone is talking about the bloodless creatures. I have to laugh at all the precautions the peasants are taking."

DeSoto laughed with her. "Yes, they can be a superstitious lot."

Diego gritted his teeth. Taking a deep breath, he forced the muscles in his jaws to relax. He barely stopped himself for snapping hypocrite at the _alcalde_. "The _caballeros_ are just as frightened, A_lcalde_."

"Well, everyone fears the unknown," Tasia agreed with the usual smile on her face. Diego didn't bother to correct her. People feared starvation and the destruction of their livelihood if the cattle died. "The peasants have taken things a little far however."

DeSoto nodded. "Salt across the threshold seems to be the newest way of keeping out the blood taker."

"I've heard some mention vampires," Tasia whispered.

DeSoto's laugh boomed across the room. "Yes, I've heard the same silly rumors myself."

"It almost appears as if someone wants us to believe that vampires actually exist," Diego muttered, frowning.

"Diego, this is a party," said his father as he approached with the smiling Victoria on his arms. Her husband noticed the strain around her eyes and lips, but he doubted anyone else in the room thought her smile was anything but genuine. Even though they had never discussed the _pueblo_'s newest resident, Diego was certain she disliked Tasia even more than he did. "You should be smiling."

"I apologize, Father; we were discussing-"

Alejandro held up his hand. "I know, and I don't want to discuss cattle anymore."

Victoria chuckled. "That's odd. I thought ranchers always talked about cows."

The small group laughed. Tasia looked up at Diego and put her arm on his arm; Victoria's smile grew more strained, but other than that small sign, there were no visible reactions from her at the sight of another woman touching him. She once got in a food fight over him; she used to blush and shake her head when she recalled that incident, embarrassed by her actions. Now, she didn't seem to care about him at all. Of course, she had been fighting over Zorro then. Diego apparently wasn't worth fighting over.

Their eyes met and held as Tasia asked Diego to ask her to dance. DeSoto and Alejandro both frowned as Diego politelyacted as he was directed and led her out to the dance floor, but Victoria appeared unconcerned. Diego's anger at her lack of response was turned towards himself as soon as Tasia stepped into his arms.

The now-familiar lust nearly overwhelmed him. He pulled her closer than was proper, and the smell of her bath water danced across his nostrils. Her skin felt deliciously warm beneath his fingers, and her eyes were as hypnotic as the sea. He wanted to lose himself in her body. Even in the middle of a crowd of his friends, with his wife and father watching him, he ached to carry her off to a bedroom and remove her clothes.

He hated himself, and he hated her.

"Diego," she said. He found himself leaning closer to hear her; her voice sent shivers up his spine. Why was he feeling this way with her? A woman he didn't even like. His marriage was suffering right now, but did that really explain why he was so attracted to Tasia?

"_Don_ Diego, if I may," DeSoto interrupted. Diego managed to look away from the woman in his arm through strength of will alone. He glanced at DeSoto in confusion, only realizing after several seconds that DeSoto wanted to dance with Tasia.

"Of course," Diego said, stepping back. The air in the room suddenly felt cooler. Tasia frowned as she stepped into DeSoto's arms, but she was soon smiling again as he twirled across the dance floor. Diego glance to where his family had been standing; his father was standing there alone, a glass of wine in his hand and a glower on this face.

Diego scanned the room and found his wife on the dance floor. In Raul's arms. Resisting the urge to go punch the man in the face, he turned on his heels and left the room. Maybe the cool night air would help clear his head.

Z Z Z

He found Mendoza slumped over in the gardens. "Mendoza!" He shook the sergeant and let out a relieved sigh when his friend moaned. Scanning the landscape for any signs of intruders, he saw only the darkness of night and a few trees and shrubs.

Helping Mendoza to stand, he started asking questions. "Did someone attack you?"

"What? Oh, no, no," Mendoza said, sitting down in a nearby chair. He leaned heavily on the table and wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.

Diego bit back his frustration. "What happened, Mendoza?" If there was going to be an attack, he needed to be heading towards his own _hacienda_ and changing into Zorro.

"Oh, nothing, _Don_ Diego." Mendoza wrung the handkerchief in his hands and then tucked it into his pocket. Diego thought he saw the Sergeant's cheeks darken.

"You were unconscious, Mendoza."

The sergeant looked to where he had been laying and sighed. "You won't say anything to the _alcalde_ will you?"

"Mendoza, maybe you were attacked. He needs-"

"I wasn't attacked."

"Sometimes head injuries-"

Mendoza moaned. "I fainted."

"You fainted?" Diego sat down in the chair across from his friend. "Why would you faint?"

"It's a dark night. And it's scary out here."

"Mendoza," he said, leaning forward. "You are made of sterner stuff than that."

The sergeant's shoulders slumped. "I thought I saw a ghost."

Diego blinked. "A ghost?"

Nodding, Mendoza said, "_Sí_. The _alcalde_ ordered us to patrol the grounds since so many _caballeros_ were going to be here tonight."

Diego barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. He had ordered the patrol to impress Tasia with his power. No one had any doubt of that fact. "Yes, I noticed the increase in guard, Mendoza. It made me feel a lot safer knowing you were out here."

The slightly-round man beamed. "Thank you, _Don_ Diego. Anyway, I heard a noise, and I was bravely approaching where I heard-"

Diego managed to hide his smile, knowing that Mendoza was braver than he believed, but he would have been shaking in his boots and praying the entire time he approached anything that frightened him. "Of course you were, Sergeant."

Mendoza lowered his voice to a whisper. "That's when I heard him, _Don_ Diego. I heard him say my name."

"Who, Mendoza?"

"The _alcalde_."

Diego frowned. "The _alcalde_'s been inside dancing, and he's hardly likely to leave you lying on the ground."

Mendoza shook his head. "No! Not this _alcalde_. Luis Ramone."

His stomach dropped at the sound of that name. Diego had been the only one to see that man die, not that the innocent man sitting in front of him knew that fact. Zorro had been playing with his old enemy, never truly appreciating the danger the man was in until Ramone fell to his death.

"Ramone is dead," Diego snapped, knowing that his anger was being directed at the wrong person.

"I know, _Don_ Diego. Madre de Dios!" Mendoza cried, crossing himself. "A ghost. I heard him say 'Mendoza?' like he wasn't sure it was really me, and when I turned I saw him standing right there!" He pointed towards the kitchen entrance.

Diego started to say something more when a Corporal Gomez appeared. "Corporal? Would you mind staying with the sergeant while I go get you both something to drink?" The two men eagerly accepted his offer after he promised not to say a word to DeSoto.

"First vampires and now ghosts," Diego muttered as he stomped towards the _hacienda._ "What's next? Werewolves?"

Z Z Z

Esperanza sighed as she settled down on the blanket. She was deep inside the cave, deep enough the sun would not reach her when it rose in a few minutes. She put a hand beneath her head and studied the poster she had taken off of a wall in Los Angeles.

Roaming through the _pueblo_ as a dirty peasant woman, she had attracted little to no attention. The _alcalde_ of Los Angeles, dressed in a full-dress uniform had sniffed his disapproval of her appearance as he had strolled into his office. While she stared at the poster, she half-way listened to a couple of soldiers talk about a party, and how a young married _don_ had danced much too close to a woman, a woman the _alcalde_ was apparently courting.

Esperanza snorted as she thought of that conversation. Gossip. Centuries after her "death," humans were still the same. She remembered her mother being the focus of gossip. When she had been a child, Esperanza had to endure the taunts of other children and the cruelty of the women. Her stomach still twisted at the memory of walking down the street and having every woman turn their back to her. She had been an innocent child, even if her mother had been sleeping with most of those ladies' husbands.

Men were all the same. Even Aldrick, who had not been a man in centuries, had ended up using her. She was still angry with herself for allowing him to get so close, but the past was the past. She needed to focus on the present.

While the humans thought their risqué gossip was the most important news event in their life, she knew the meeting being held in Los Angeles soon was vitally important. A meeting that would decide the fate of the world, if the ancients were correct in their prophecies.

She knew the man printed on the wanted poster was either the answer to the world's dreams or its biggest nightmare.

If he joined forces with Tasia . . .

Tasia. Now there was a name that apparently could strike fear in the ancients. They were centuries older than her, but she was almost as strong as them. Why she was so powerful was the stuff of whispered rumors in the vampire world. The love of gossip was such a strong human fault that even death could not end it.

Esperanza rubbed her forehead. She didn't suffer from headaches anymore, but she still went through the motions when she was stressed. Why had Aldrick and the other ancients chosen her? She had never displayed any of the strength that Tasia had displayed from the moment of her transformation. They had both been transformed by ancients, but she had none of the drive to learn all of the dark arts like Tasia.

Dark arts. "The One in Dark. Well, at least they didn't make that too complicated," she muttered to the piece of paper in her hand. "Seems like they would've called you The One in Black, but then prophets would be out of business if they were plain speaking, wouldn't they? All I have to do is find out who you are, Zorro. And then I'll kill you."

Z Z Z

Alejandro walked into the library and barely avoided colliding with Diego. With practiced ease, he pivoted around the younger man who was lost in a book. "Diego," he said.

His son looked up and blinked. "Father."

Grasping the gloves in his hand, Alejandro gritted his teeth. "I want to discuss Tasia."

His son's eyes didn't meet his as he said, "Tasia?"

"Yes, Tasia. The lady you danced with last night."

Diego flipped a page in the book, but Alejandro knew he wasn't actually reading it now. "I danced with several ladies last night."

"Including your wife."

Alejandro noticed Diego's hands tighten on the book. "Yes, but so did you and Raul and a number of other men."

"Diego, the way you danced with Tasia-"

Diego snapped the book closed and rubbed his forehead. "Father-"

"I understand temptation, Diego." He resisted the urge to yell at Diego, knowing that his son wouldn't listen to a lecture. And he did understand, even if he could not accept.

Diego stared at him, his mouth gaping. "Father-"

Alejandro knew his smile was not a happy one. "I loved your mother, Diego, but I am a man. And a soldier who was away from home for long periods of time."

He hated seeing the disappointment in Diego's eyes. His son was so different from him, but Alejandro had never doubted having Diego's respect. "I never gave into the temptation, but I often yearned for a warm body beside me, a caring ear to listen while I rested between battles. I never gave in because I knew the comfort would only last for a few fleeting moments, but the guilt would last a lifetime."

Diego starred down at the book. Alejandro saw his son's jaw throb. "I don't even like _Doña_ Tasia. She's a snob and has a streak of cruelty in her that I find offensive."

He closed his eyes briefly and gave thanks that his son wasn't enamored with the woman. His assessment of her character agreed with Diego's. But character and lust were not always joined. "But you want her." Diego said nothing. "Son, I know your marriage is not as happy as you would like, but-"

Diego's laughter was shallow. "Happy? We're expecting the first of those grandbabies you always wanted, Father. And in all those requests and hints you dropped over the years, you never said I had to be happy."

The gasp behind him was soft, but Alejandro heard it. He turned and saw Victoria standing there. Her hair and dress was immaculate, as it always was now. When she had first married Diego, her entire style of dress had changed-she was, after all, a _caballero's_ wife now-but he had often caught her with her hair down and her feet bare when she and Diego walked out in the garden. And her laughter had bounced off these walls at all times, day or night.

Now, her laughter was as tightly held within her as her hair was in that bun. "I'm going to the _pueblo_," she announced, pulling on her gloves. She said nothing about her husband admitting he was unhappy in their marriage, but then, she was an intelligent woman. Anyone with two eyes could see that they were both miserable.

"Are you going to the tavern?" Diego asked politely.

"Yes," she answered with a thin smile on her lips. "Raul needs help today."

Alejandro turned and looked at his son as Victoria left. Diego tossed his book down. For one moment, he looked as if he wanted to tear the room apart, and Alejandro briefly felt like he was looking at a stranger. Then, Diego closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and exhaled. "I have some experiments to finish. If you will excuse me."

He left his father standing alone, aching to offer comfort, but unsure how to do so.

ZZZ

Even with her sensitive hearing, Esperanza failed to notice the lady approaching her. She flinched when a bowl appeared in front of her. Steam rose from it, bringing with it a delightful aroma. For a brief moment, she wished human food still tasted the same to her.

She looked up at the woman offering her the food and was surprised to see compassion instead of scorn. Humans were usually uncomfortable with reminders that others were not as fortunate as themselves. Most of the citizens of Los Angeles had been careful to avoid her when she walked into the _pueblo_ after sundown, but a few had given her warnings about the _alcalde_. None had offered her nourishment or comfort.

And from what she had overheard earlier, the woman in front of her was the wealthiest woman in the area. Wealthy in her own right, she had married the second wealthiest man in the area. Who happened to be the son of the wealthiest.

"I do not have the money to pay, _Señora_."

"I'm not asking for payment. You need to eat, so eat," the woman said handing her the bowl and a spoon.

Esperanza felt grateful for the gesture even though she had no need for food any more. At least not this type. "Thank you," she said, thanking her benefactress for reminding her of human kindness.

"You're welcome," she said, sitting her very pregnant frame down on the step next to Esperanza.

"Your outfit!"

She waved her hand. "It's unimportant. You look as if you could use a friend. I'm Victoria de la Vega."

"Esperanza," she replied, offering no last name. It had been decades since she needed one, and she felt no desire to lie to this kind lady. "And I don't need a friend."

"Are you sure? You look as if the weight of the world is on your shoulders."

Esperanza almost winced. Was it so obvious? "I thought the weight of the world was on your masked bandit's shoulders."

The smile left Victoria's face. "Zorro? Yes, he does seem to believe the weight of the world is on his shoulders alone." Was that bitterness clinging to those words?

She carefully tasted the soup. The smell told her it was a wonderful mix of herbs and spices, but the flavor failed to appear on her tongue. "I heard people talking tonight. They said you used to be closed friends." Was that the reason for her bitterness?

Victoria nibbled on her lip and then nodded. "Yes, we used to be friends."

Esperanza paused only a moment before taking another bite of her soup. She had thought that this woman would be more of a threat than a help in her mission to destroy the masked man. "You are no longer friends?"

Victoria's eyes strayed across the empty plaza. "I don't know."

Esperanza sat up straighter, lowering the bowl of soup. "You do not know if you are friends?"

"No," she said sadly. "I don't know what we are anymore."

"Rumor has it that you married another."

Esperanza did not understand the smile that flashed across that face. "Yes, I married Diego instead of Zorro."

She heard the sadness. "You regret it? Not waiting for Zorro."

Victoria's smile showed all the signs of being forced. "Another rumor you heard? That I was still in love with the masked hero of Los Angeles? Well, the gossips are wrong. I have no love for Zorro. Sometimes, I don't even like him."

Her instincts told her the words were true. Odd. None of the rumors spoke of the young tavern owner being anything but enamored with Zorro. "But do you trust him?" she asked as she carefully sat down the empty bowl.

Victoria was silent for a moment. Esperanza could see the tension in the other woman's shoulders before she stiffly turned and looked at her. The other woman apparently saw something on Esperanza's face. She shifted her body away and her hands clenched into fists. Questions burned in her eyes and the earlier welcome was gone. "Trust him? Of course I trust Zorro. He is a hero."

Esperanza made a decision to trust this woman. She needed to know, to understand. Why would a man who apparently was willing to even lose everything-even the woman he loved-to help save the innocent, help Tasia? "Even hero's can make mistakes. Or decide to stop being heroes."

Tears that were not shed reflected in the moonlight. Victoria shook her head. "No, you don't know him. He will never stop being a hero. It is who he is."

"And yet you do not like him."

Carefully using one hand against the wall to help her stand, Victoria grasped the empty bowl and stood. "What I feel for Zorro has nothing to do with trust, _Señorita_."

To her own amazement, Esperanza tossed caution to the wind and asked the question that was pounding in her brain. "Would you trust him with the fate of the world?"

Victoria studied her for a moment. "I trust him to always sacrifice himself for the good of everyone else."

"I'm not sure that I can take that chance."

The spoon rattled in the bowl as Victoria's hands shook. "Who are you?"

"A friend."

Black hair fell from a tight bun as Victoria shook her head. "You're not a friend if you are a threat to Zorro."

Esperanza smiled. "I thought you did not even like the man. Besides, one man is not that important compared to the world."

"Sometimes one man is the world." The love Victoria felt for her masked hero dripped from every word.

The two women were silent for a moment after that revelation. "Well, perhaps you like him more than you think." And with those words, Esperanza turned and walked towards the land surrounding the _pueblo_.

Z Z Z


	5. Chapter 5

Diego froze when Victoria appeared in his den. It had been months since she last came into the home of Zorro. When they first married, she often helped him dress before he left and was waiting to hear of his adventure when he came home. He noticed the look on her face.

"Is something wrong, Victoria? Father—"

She shook her head, allowing more of her hair to fall from the bun. His fingers itched to run his fingers through her hair, freeing all of it from its prison. He loved when it flowed freely around her shoulders.

"I just came from the _pueblo_," she said.

Diego could not stop his muscles from tensing. Was she here to confess some indiscretion with Raul? He realized in that moment that he never wanted to know if his suspicions were correct. He spent his entire life looking for truths, had risked his life for over a decade fighting for justice, but where Victoria was concerned, Diego wanted to believe that she loved him more than all others. Even if it was a lie.

"And—"

"There was a lady there. I've noticed her a few nights in the _pueblo_."

"You think she's a danger to everyone? A thief perhaps."

Victoria's hand grasped over her stomach. "No, I don't think she's dangerous to the people in Los Angeles. I think she's a danger to Zorro."

Diego frowned, her uncharacteristic fear leaving him confused and uncertain. "You think she's been hired by the _alcalde_? You believe she has some skill with a rifle or a blade?"

"No," Victoria said, looking at everything in the cave but him. "No, I don't know. She might have been, but from her appearance I don't think she would have the money for guns or for swords."

He took a careful step forward, as if she were a wounded wolf. "Then why do you—"

"I think she's _loco_."

"_Loco_?" It was term he and Victoria were careful in using. A friend of his father died last year, but not before suffering weakness in his mind. Diego remembered watching his father's face as _Don_ Carlito spent an hour complaining about a lazy worker. Alejandro's distress had been easy for him to see, but he hadn't understood. Not until _Don_ Alejandro told him that the worker Carlito was complaining of died over 15 years previously.

"She talked about trusting you with the lives of everyone in the world. She didn't know if she could take that chance."

They stared at each other for a moment. Diego broke the silence: "I barely can help in Los Angeles. I doubt anyone would trust me with the world."

Victoria nibbled on her bottom lip. "She acted as if you were a threat."

His hands ached to reach for her, to stroke her shoulder in comfort. His arms ached to hold her close to him. "Victoria—"

The words he yearned to speak would not pass his lips. Instead, he asked. "How did you end up talking to her?"

"I took her a bowl of soup after the tavern closed. I noticed her sitting next to the church, watching as people left the plaza. I couldn't bear the thought of her being hungry."

Her compassion was a part of what he loved about her. However, fear gripped his heart. His wife and his child. He hadn't been in Los Angeles to protect them tonight. Instead he had been looking for clues in the mysterious cow deaths still plaguing the countryside. "Victoria, did you not think before you approached her? You know—"

"That it's not proper."

Diego was surprised by her words. "Well, it's not proper—"

"Good night, Diego. I just wanted to warn you about the woman." Victoria turned to leave him. She stopped. Without even turning to look at him, she said, "Please be careful."

Diego watched her go, unsure what to say or do. Would he ever find the words he needed to say to her?

ZZZ

"I have not seen you in some time, _Don_ Diego," _Doña_ Tasia said as she met him outside the tavern door.

Diego had to swallow once before he could speak. "I have been busy at the _ranchero_."

"Have you?" she asked with that knowing smile on her lips. Those lips were as full and moist as usual. Their ruby red color glistened in the moonlight. "But even busy ranchers must eat. You must join me for dinner tomorrow night."

Every part of Diego's body knew that was a horrible idea. "I'm not—"

She laid her hand on his chest. He wondered if she could feel the beat of his heart speed up beneath that hand. Her smile told him that the answer was yes. "Please."

He wondered if the smile on his face looked as ill as he felt. "Of course," he said, even as his conscience loudly protested.

"We shall expect you tomorrow night," she said. A brief nod and she was gone. Diego watched her leave and wondered why he feared her more than he feared the _alcalde_.

A large speeding object slammed into his side, pushing him into the tavern wall. "Oh, I-I'm s-s-so s-sorry, _D-Don_ Diego," Mendoza sputtered from the ground as he struggled to stand.

Diego offered him a hand. "What's wrong, Sergeant?" he asked as he rubbed his sore shoulder. As many times as they had fought, Mendoza had never managed to hurt him until tonight. Diego would laugh if he had the energy.

"I-I—Nothing. N-nothing is wrong."

"Mendoza—"

The sergeant looked over Diego's shoulder into the darkness beyond. "I was just—"

"Mendoza," Diego said calmly laying a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's me."

The trembling man closed his eyes and then took a deep breath. He looked around to see if they were alone and then leaned in closer to Diego. "I saw him. Again."

"Saw who—" Diego started to ask before remembering the ghost that had haunted a garden one night. "You saw Ramone."

"_Sí_," he squeaked.

"Sergeant—"

Mendoza crossed himself. "I know what I saw. He talked to me!"

Any amusement Diego felt left him immediately. "He talked to you?"

Mendoza's eyes were wild, but his nod was firm and confident. "_Sí_," he whispered.

"His brother—"

"Is in a prison in Guadalajara," Mendoza said as he wiped his brow with a large handkerchief.

"He could have-"

"No," Mendoza sighed. "I sent a messenger to the warden. He is still there."

"You sent a messenger?" Diego was both amused and awed. Mendoza did not like extra work. Which only showed how frightened he was by his "ghost". "Ramone is dead, Mendoza."

Somehow the sergeant managed to become even paler. "I know. But somehow he stood in front of me and talked to me tonight."

Diego found himself leaning against the tavern. "What did he say?"

A small frown crossed the terrified face. "He asked me questions."

"Questions?"

"About the past. Like he remembered it but the memories were not too clear."

Diego shook his head. "Mendoza, you buried—"

Mendoza yanked at his collar. "No, _Don_ Diego, I didn't."

For a brief moment, Diego felt the world tilt beneath him. "You didn't stay to bury him."

"We never found the body," he whispered.

"What?"

"Everything was so confused that day, but Zorro told me—"

Diego shook his head, old familiar images racing through his head. "He fell from—"

"I know! Zorro told me, but when I went there, his body was gone."

Diego struggled to breathe. "You think he's alive?"

Mendoza looked stunned by the suggestion. "I—I don't think what I talked to tonight was alive, _Don_ Diego."

"What?" Diego straightened, suddenly filled with fear. Ramone was dangerous before, but a Ramone who knew his secret was dangerous to everyone Diego loved. "It makes more sense that he fell, hit his head, developed memory—"

Mendoza gulped. "I was watching carefully, _Don _Diego. He wasn't breathing."

ZZZ

_Don _Alejandro immediately noticed how pale his son looked. "Diego, are you ill?"

Diego stopped in mid-pace and turned to look at him. "Ill?"

"You're so pale." Alejandro noticed that the hand Diego used to run through his hair was shaking.

"It's nothing."

He stepped into the library and placed a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Diego, what is it?"

Diego's blue eyes starred into his for a moment. Then, he sighed. "I think the world is going insane. Or I am."

He nodded and motioned for Diego to sit. After carefully turning a chair to face his son's, he sank down into it. He studied the exhausted man in front of him and bled inside for him. In the last year, his son had aged years. "I know you and Victoria are having problems—"

Diego's shoulders tensed. "Father, this is not about—"

"Your marriage—"

Diego shot out of the chair and returned to his pacing. "Victoria has nothing to do with this."

Alejandro tried to find the words to explain that a man's wife had everything to do with every other part of his life. He knew in his own marriage, Elena touched every part of his life. If he was happy with her, he was happy with everything. Problems on the ranch were easier to solve when he could talk to her at night. When they fought, every burden in his life weighed heavier on his shoulders.

"Diego, I know—"

"Father, cows are dying."

He briefly considered trying to force the discussion, but he knew Diego's stubbornness was even more ingrained than his own. A fact he had somehow missed seeing for years. "We have been fortunate that none of ours have died. Our neighbors are worried."

"And scared. And I can do nothing to help."

Alejandro frowned. "I know you enjoy science, Diego, but I don't believe anyone expects you to be able to stop disease."

"But they expect me—" Diego stopped mid-sentence and shook his head. "I should be able to solve this problem. I just have to work harder on it."

"Son, you are seldom home now. You are needed here." His problems would not be solved by running away from them.

Diego stopped pacing, and Alejandro watched as his son's shoulders slumped. "No, I'm not needed here, Father. I have not been needed for some time."

"You have a child on the way, Diego."

Diego turned his back to his father and laid his hand on the piano. The keys clanged in protest. "You and Victoria both act as if I could forget."

"Diego—"

His son sat down and started to play a beautiful melody. "I know my responsibilities, Father. I have always been aware of my responsibilities. Even those you do not believe—"

Alejandro walked to his son and squeezed his shoulders. He took a deep breath, and struggled to say the words that should be so easy for him to say. "I know I have been hard on you, more often than not, too hard, too critical of you, but I do know you will be a great father."

The music stopped. Diego finally turned to look at him. "I have prayed that I will be at least half the father you have been to me."

Alejandro squeezed Diego's shoulder tighter and blinked back the tears. "You've been a wonderful father to Felipe, and I know you will be a wonderful father to the little one."

"I'm glad Felipe is not here to see this insanity."

Remembering the letters he had received from his grandson, Alejandro suspected the youngest de la Vega knew of the problems at home. Somehow the young man seemed to know that Diego and his bride were having troubles. Perhaps it was understandable. No one knew Diego as well as Felipe. The young man had asked some hard questions in his last letter, and Alejandro was still debating about how to answer.

But Diego had said earlier he was talking about dead cows and not his marriage. His son had been working hard to find a scientific answer for the problem. Water and soil samples had been taken. Plants had been carefully recorded. He'd even made notes of the bugs in the trees! He'd been just as diligent in doing everything he could to protect their herd. The dark circles under his eyes spoke of little sleep, and his clothes were beginning to hang some from his frame.

Alejandro rushed his grandson was here for Diego to lean against. "What insanity? The cows?"

"The fear," he answered, rubbing his forehead. "The subtle terror that is taking over our _pueblo_. Whispers of vampires. Of ghosts."

"Ghosts?" Alejandro shook his head. "I hadn't heard that theory."

Diego's chuckle was not from amusement. "That is my theory."

Alejandro struggled to understand. "You, my son, believe that ghosts are killing our cattle?"

"Not a real ghost. A man pretending to be a ghost." Diego sighed. "Mendoza has been seeing a ghost."

"A ghost?" Alejandro shook his head. "He has been 'haunted' before, Diego."

"Exactly! And Ramone would know—"

"Ramón? Victoria's brother?"

"No." Diego hesitated a moment before admitting, "Our former _alcalde_."

If it was anyone else besides his so serious son, Alejandro would've burst out laughing. "Diego, Ramone is dead."

"Apparently, Mendoza didn't find a body, Father. The good sergeant informed me tonight that—"

"I know," Alejandro admitted. "He told me when you were in France. But, Diego, he's gone. Zorro—"

"Could have been mistaken." Diego leaned forward, holding a hand out as if pleading. "What if he were wrong?"

"Ramone would've come back to Los Angeles before now."

"He would have been seriously injured—"

"Diego, even if it were possible for him to be here, there is no way he is the one killing the cows. You yourself have said no man—"

"Maybe I'm wrong there, too," he sighed. "Perhaps Zorro is not the only one who has made mistakes."

"Diego, I know you have had problems with our hero since—"

"His actions nearly killed my wife." Diego's jaw clenched. "It was acceptable to everyone but me."

Alejandro nodded, remembering the fury on his son's face when he returned home to find his wife injured and ill. He frowned as he realized that it was after that near catastrophe that the marriage began to show strain. Had they argued about Zorro? And his role in their life?

"Good afternoon," an unexpected voice said behind them. Alejandro was pleased by the smile on her face. Some of the tension had been easing from her face over the last week. She was still working too hard for a woman in her condition, but Diego had started making sure he was there to escort her home every night before closing. The extra sleep was apparently helping.

"Good afternoon," he replied. He smiled as his son offered his own greeting. "I am pleased to see you home so early."

She grinned and looked down at her feet. "I told Raul that I wanted to have dinner with my family."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," he said, noting the smile on Diego's face.

"Indeed it does. We could—" Diego stopped talking and the smile left his face. "I told _Doña_ Tasia that I would have dinner with her household tonight."

The chill in Victoria's eyes made Alejandro shiver. "You are having dinner with _Doña_ Tasia."

Diego's face showed no expression as he explained, "I told her last night that I would. I'll send a message—"

"No," Victoria said, shaking her head. "You have made plans, and I would not dream of making you change them. Go and have your dinner with her; I'll keep your father company." Gathering up her skirt, Victoria turned and stalked from the room.

Diego watched her go without speaking a word. Then, he strolled out of the library and out of the _hacienda_.

Alejandro thought of the _Doña_ Tacia, a beautiful viper who seemed to have his son entranced. Fury coursed through his veins. Fury that Diego would be so stupid as to accept a dinner invitation from her. And fear. Fear that he would not be able to resist her siren's call.

If he gave in to temptation, he would hate himself forever. Alejandro knew his son's sense of honor was even more ingrained than his stubbornness. Personally, Alejandro did not understand Diego's desire for the lady. She was beautiful on the outside, but she had none of the qualities he thought his son appreciated.

"Elena," he said, looking up to the heavens. "I wish you were here to help us."

Z Z Z

For the thousandth time, Diego asked himself why he was sitting at this table, eating dinner with this woman. He knew several men in the _pueblo_ who would not understand the revulsion Tasia created in his soul. The _alcalde_, for example. That man was enamored by her beauty.

But even as he tried to deny that her physical beauty had also ensnared him, he found himself mesmerized as her dainty fingers slid around her glass of wine. She made another snide comment about a lady whom Diego admired. All night, while his mind provided verse after verse about her lips, he found himself cut by her savage wit. She never used it against him, only finding words of compliment for him. However, Diego loved his neighbors, loved many of them as if they were family, and hearing her belittle them had been painful.

And, yet, instead of telling her that she would never be half the woman _Doña _Rafeala was, he had only listened as she made fun of the dinner party the woman had held last week. When she had insulted one of his father's closest friends by saying the man was a savage who didn't deserve the land he had been given by the Crown, Diego had remained quiet, thinking only of her delicate facial features.

"Let's retire to the library, shall we?" she asked, standing. Diego wanted to make his excuses and leave, but his mouth remained closed as he followed her as if he were a puppet and she were his master.

"I expected to meet—" Diego cleared his throat. "-your husband tonight."

"Innocenzio is too ill to even have dinner at our table or to meet guests of any type, I'm afraid."

Diego struggled to find something to say to her. Something besides the poetry springing through his mind. "Have you allowed Dr. Hernandez to see him?"

She shook her head and tried to look sad. "No, I'm afraid Innocenzio has decided that he's suffered enough. No more treatments for him. He came to Los Angeles to die."

"It's a nicer _pueblo_ to live in," Diego said, allowing his anger and disgust to escape. She was allowing her husband to die in agony without the benefit of medical aid.

"I agree. And I've told Innocenzio that I want him to live. However, my husband is even more stubborn than me," she said, and Diego found himself almost believing her. What was it about her that had him always assuming the worst about her? Was he someone trying to make her a villain in his own mind so he didn't feel guilty about lusting after her?

He nodded and finished the wine in his glass. "I have had a pleasant evening—"

She took a step closer, and the smell of her bath water swirled around him. "You are not leaving so early." It sounded like an order.

"I have a wife that needs me home."

"Really?" Another step closer. "Rumor has it that your bed is a cold one."

He clenched his teeth so tightly together that his jaw ached. "My marriage is none of your concern."

Her fingers played across his skin. "But it is. You and I both know it."

He shook his head and closed his eyes, but her smell still overwhelmed his senses. "I need to be home."

"But you want to be here," she whispered. Then, she drew his head down to hers.

Desire shot through his body, and he found his hands wrapped in her hair as he tried to inhale her. Her lips were as luscious as they promised. As he stood in her library with their bodies entwined, he could not remember why this was wrong.

Her tongue licked his jaw line. "You want me."

"Yes," he whispered in spite of himself.

"Then stop fighting," she whispered into his ear before starting to nibble her way down to the side of his throat.

Fighting? He wasn't fighting. Why would he fight? Just as soon as his mind asked the question, it supplied the answer. Victoria. He could see her standing in the library, the afternoon sun highlighting the smile on her face, a smile he had not seen in so long.

He pushed Tasia away. Her face was twisted in fury as she stumbled. "I'm married."

"You don't love her."

Diego stared at the woman in front of him, a woman he hated. Not only for being able to offer him a temptation, but for being a cruel person. For the smile on her lips as she cut into him with her words. "Yes, I do. I've loved her since I was a small boy."

Tasia laughed. "She's a bar maid. _Doña_ Abegail—"

"She is a brave woman whose compassion is unmatched anywhere in the territories," Diego said, unwilling to hear even one word said against his wife. "There is no woman in the entire territory her equal."

Tasia's smile highlighted the swelling of her lips, swelling caused by their violent kisses. "None?"

"None," Diego answered. He turned and walked out of her home. He wouldn't admit to even himself that he was fighting the urge to run.

ZZZ

"You were going to have sex with him in our home," Innocenzio snarled.

She looked at her lover and smiled. "Yes, I was."

"He's my enemy."

"Diego de la Vega? He wasn't even at the Fortress. Everyone says—"

Innocenzio chuckled. "You've never listened to what everyone else says."

"True."

"He's dangerous."

She grinned and touched her lips. "I've sensed an amazing power in him ever since I met him."

"He's Zorro."

Her blood sang. "He's Zorro?"

Innocenzio nodded. "I remembered tonight when I saw him arrive."

Zorro. She had paid little attention to the outlaw. He could not stop her plans, and he had done little to ease the tensions running wild in the _pueblo_. Could it be? All the power. Could he be-"The Dark One?"

Innocenzio frowned at her words, unaware of a prophecy most vampires heard about in the first few months of death. "He's dangerous to your plans whatever they are."

She shook her head. "No, he's just might be what I need Innocenzio. Why I came to Los Angeles."

The blond man looked as if she had hit him. "You need him?"

"Yes."

Innocenzio took a step forward. Fury mixing with curiosity on his face. "For what?"

"To help me conquer the world."

ZZZ

He slipped into the cave and immediately headed towards the mirror. Fortunately, none of the _vaqueros_ had been around when he returned home, and the servants were in bed. He had ridden from Tasia's _hacienda _like the demons of hell were following him. He had spent hours on his horse, thinking, struggling to understand the unforgivable.

The image looking back from the looking glass was that of a wild man. He could not remember a time when he appeared so disheveled. His hair was flowing in several different directions. Tasia's lipstick was smeared from his lips to his ears.

"I heard your horse," Victoria said.

He spun and found his wife standing at the archway leading into the cave. Her fingers were curled into tight fists, and her shoulders appeared to be trembling. The dullness in her eyes was gone, but Diego could not celebrate its loss. The pain there ripped him into pieces. He had caused her pain, something he had sworn never to do.

It didn't matter that he wasn't guilty of the crime. All that mattered to him was that he came far too close to committing it. "Victoria—"

"I prepared a bath for you. You will wash her from you before you come to our bed."

Diego wanted to explain but she was gone before he could open his mouth. He raced into the _hacienda_ and ran into their room, but she wasn't there. Diego considered trying to find her, but knew it would be useless. Besides his flesh was crawling with the desire to be clean. He stripped out of his clothes and tossed them into the fireplace before sitting down into the cold water.

He sat there for over an hour, shivering. When he finally stumbled into bed, the door opened. Victoria shuffled quietly into the room and joined him. His earlier desire to explain had disappeared. What could he say? That he desired another woman, that he had almost fallen into that woman's bed? Nothing he could say would ease the pain he caused her, and he had no right to ask for her forgiveness. So he stayed on his side of the bed and pretended to be asleep while she cried.

ZZZ

Esperanza sighed as she strolled into the tavern. The Dark One was proving difficult to locate. And if she couldn't find him, she couldn't kill him. Unfortunately, the person who knew him best didn't trust her. She already suspected Esperanza had plans for Zorro.

The lady's hair was down instead of up in the proper bun it had been in before. Her clothes weren't as elegant, more appropriate for her environment. And she was as pale as any vampire Esperanza had met.

Terror replaced the sadness in her eyes when she noticed Esperanza. "What are you doing here?" Victoria demanded.

"I've come to talk to you."

Victoria held the dishes she was carrying closer to her body. "I want you to leave. The tavern is closed."

"Don't you want to convince me that Zorro is a good man?"

"Do you need some help, _Doña _Victoria?" the soft baritone of a man said behind Esperanza.

Victoria studied Esperanza before shaking her head. "Please take these dishes to Teresa to wash. I need to speak to this woman alone for a few minutes."

The man didn't appear to like it, but he left them. Esperanza followed her to a table next to the staircase and sat down with an attitude that she knew was rattling the other woman. Zorro's woman. She liked her; it was a shame she had to cause her pain to save the world.

"Zorro has saved so many people."

Esperanza leaned forward on her elbows and rested her chin in her hands. "I know."

"Why do you think—"

"I know," she said with a sad smile. "I don't particularly want to kill him, but it's necessary."

"Necessary?"

"Yes," she said. It wasn't what she was planning on saying. All day, lying in her cave, waiting for the sun to set, she had planned this conversation. She would use her charm and her wit to get information from Victoria. However, she had forgotten that she respected this woman, and since she respected her, she wasn't going to play games with her.

"Why are you so sad?" she asked. "I thought you didn't even like him?"

A hardened jaw line was the only response to her question.

Laughing, she leaned back against the wall. "I have heard that your marriage was a happy one. Briefly. Did Zorro destroy it? Did knowing you would die for the masked man drive Diego away from you? If you had allowed him to die that day, your marriage might still have been a happy one. And you and I would not be having this conversation."

Victoria's eyes were now looking at the table. "My marriage is still a happy one."

Esperanza leaned forward and clasped her hands, setting them carefully down on the table. Her words were going to hurt, but Victoria needed to face reality. "Every voice in this _pueblo_ has whispered about you two. You are the favorite subject of conversation, I'm afraid."

The eyes were now looking up and full of fury. "People should mind their own business."

"I'll let you in on a secret. People never mind their own business. They haven't for centuries."

Victoria's eyebrow lifted. "You speak as if you know that for a fact."

Esperanza again refused to lie to her, but she knew she couldn't trust this woman with the complete truth. Or rather, she was choosing not to burden this woman with the truth. "I do know it," was all she said.

"Why did you come here tonight?"

"To get information about Zorro. He's elusive. Far more elusive than I believed possible." For a human.

"I won't give it to you."

Esperanza nodded. "I know. I planned on charming it from you, but I like you too much to use you in such a way."

"He's a good man."

"He's such a good man that he led you on a merry chase for 10 years and then didn't marry you." An emotion that Esperanza could not described fluttered across Victoria's face, and she could taste an old anger on her tongue. "You are so like my mother."

Victoria's eyes widened at the charge. "Your mother?"

"You let the men in your life use you."

"I do not let the men in my life use me!" Victoria's hands were now tight little fists pressed to the surface of the table as she leaned forward. She kept her voice quiet but she spoke with firm conviction.

Exactly like her mother! Victoria was a good but stupid woman who was willing to turn a blind eye to the failings of the men in her life. Esperanza leaned forward and taunted, "First there was Zorro who claimed to love you, but then he was never willing to marry you. He would kiss your hand while he used your kitchen to escape, and you thought he was the hero you had been waiting for. Then, there was Diego, who married you for reasons no one quiet understands, but now he's in another woman's bed."

Victoria's whole body was shaking and she was blinking back tears. "Diego's an incredible man."

"Who prefers another to you! What happened, Victoria? Did he marry beneath him and then found you lacking?"

The fury that crossed Victoria's face let Esperanza know that she had guessed the truth of the marriage. She knew little about the affair, only that de la Vega was sleeping with a married woman, the same married woman the _alcalde_ had expressed interest in the night she arrived. But _caballeros_ didn't marry inn keepers. A quickly regretted impulse of passion perhaps?

"Diego is a great man," Victoria said again through clenched teeth.

Esperanza shook her head and closed her eyes. She could remember her mother expressing similar sentiments after one of the men in her life mistreated her. Somehow, in her mother's definition, a great man was allowed to beat a helpless woman. And in Victoria's, a great man was allowed to cheat on the wife who loved him.

She opened her eyes. "You love him? The weak, helpless scholar, so unlike your hero? How can you love them both?"

"You know nothing about Diego."

"I know he's—" Esperanza drew herself up straight. Of course. Victoria was too pure of heart, too focused. She didn't love two men. She heart belonged only to one. "I know he's Zorro."

The terror in Victoria's eyes confirmed the sudden suspicion. "You love him because he's Zorro. He's your hero. He did actually marry you."

Victoria's issued a weak smile. "Diego? Zorro? Impossible. Ask anyone in the _pueblo_."

Esperanza looked at the woman and felt pity. "I'm sorry," she said, standing.

"Sorry?" she whispered.

"For making you a widow," she explained before walking away to complete her task.

Z Z Z


	6. Chapter 6

Alejandro jumped from his chair when he heard the front door of the _hacienda_ slam open. He rushed into the foyer, expecting to see invaders in his home, and for a brief moment he did not recognize the wild-eyed figure rushing towards him. "Victoria?"

She clutched at his arms as she stumbled. "Diego? Where is he?"

He noticed a warm wetness on his arms, and looked down. His shirt was covered in splotches of blood, shaped in tiny palm prints. "You're bleeding!"

"I need to see, Diego," she repeated, grasping his arms tighter.

"She's been saying that since we left the tavern." The handsome man who acted as Victoria's manager stood in the doorway.

Alejandro started guiding her into the library. "What happened?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Raul said, stepping forward to help. Alejandro wanted to smack the hands away, but he resisted the urge. He needed Victoria calm, and if Raul could help, he would take it. No matter what the gossip mongers would say. "A strange lady came into the tavern, Victoria said she needed to talk to her alone, and when I came back out from the kitchen, Victoria was by herself, just standing and staring at the door."

"What happened to her hands?"

Raul looked at him over Victoria's head as they helped her into a seat. "She was holding her fists so tightly that her fingernails were digging into her skin."

"Who was this woman?"

Raul shrugged. "I do not know."

"I need you to—"

"_Don _Alejandro, I heard—" Camila stood there and immediately noticed the blood. "I will get bandages and water!"

Alejandro gently stroked the loose hair of his daughter-in-law. "Victoria, what happened?"

She looked at him through tears. "I need Diego," she repeated.

"I don't know where he is," he admitted, promising himself that he would punch his son the next time he saw him.

"I need to see him."

"Victoria—"

She wasn't looking at him anymore. Her eyes were focused on the fireplace. "You can go to bed," she said. "I'll wait here for him."

"Here? In the library?"

She stared at him with eyes that were vacant. "Yes, I'll wait here in the library while you go to bed."

Camila returned with the bandages and started to clean Victoria's hands. Alejandro turned to look at Raul. "You can go now."

Raul's eyes never left Victoria. "I would prefer—"

"It doesn't matter what you prefer. She is married to my son."

He snorted softly. "A man unworthy of her."

As much as he loved his son, as much as it pained him, he silently agreed with Raul. "She's a de la Vega. We will take care of her."

Raul closed his eyes and nodded. "Of course. If you need me, I'll be at the tavern," he said, bending his head in farewell.

Camila was helping Victoria drink something. Alejandro was relived to notice that there was some color coming back to Victoria's cheeks. Camila looked up at him and he could see his own worries reflected on her face. "Drink, Victoria," he heard Camila whispering when his daughter-in-law started to push the glass away. Victoria finished the glass without further protest.

"What happened to your hands?" the servant asked as she started to carefully clean the wounds.

"My hands?" Victoria asked, as if confused by the question. She looked down. "My hands. I hurt them," she said, stunned.

"Raul said you dug into your palms with your fingernails," he explained.

"Of course," she whispered. Sitting up straight, she tried to pull her hands away from Camila's ministration. "I need to see Diego."

"Victoria—"

"I'm fine," she said. "You both can go to bed."

Camila ignored her and continued to clean the blood from Victoria's hands. Alejandro sighed and wished his son were here to see the damage he had inflected on his family. "I'm not going to bed, Victoria. I will wait up for him with you, if you must wait for him."

Victoria's eyes traveled again to the fireplace. "No, I'm fine." She started tilting sideways in the chair, and Alejandro sprang forward to catch her. "I feel so tired."

"It is all right," Camila said, obviously trying to smooth away his and Victoria's fears. "My mother put an herb in your drink to help you sleep."

Victoria shook her head, and Alejandro whispered his appreciation. "I can't sleep. I must see Diego!"

"You'll see him in the morning," he said as Victoria's eyes closed, and she fell into a deep sleep.

Z Z Z

"It's about time you came home to your wife," a voice said behind him.

Zorro spun around to find a woman sitting inside his cavern. "Who are you?"

The small urchin stood and bowed. "I'm the lady who is going to kill you."

She drew her sword and Diego was impressed by the craftsmanship of the blade and handle. "Very nice, _Señorita_, but I'm not that easy to kill," he replied as he withdrew his own sword. He saw a flash of appreciation in her eyes when she saw his blade.

He wished he wasn't so tired. He had spent hours looking for a way to release the bent up energy in him. Tornado endured being pushed to his limits in an effort to help his master outrace his guilt, but even Tornado was not that fast. The sword felt incredibly heavy in his hands. He was so tired.

A quick salute and she stepped forward. To Diego's horror, a familiar desire coursed through his body. Was he damned to want women whom he despised? He missed losing himself in his wife's body, missed the way he felt safe and warm and loved in her arms.

A flash of awareness in her eyes warned him that he was not the only one feeling the desire. She grinned. "Of course, you are one. If you were not, you would not be a threat."

His brain tried to process her words but failed. "Threat?"

"Yes," she said, taking another step forward. "You are a threat."

"To the _alcalde_?"

She giggled, and Diego found the sound enchanting. "I don't care about petty politics, _Señor_ de la Vega." Her laughter bounced off the walls when he flinched at the name. Of course she knew who he was; she had found her way into the cave. "What the _alcalde_ does is of no importance to me."

"So why are you here?" he said as they carefully circled each other in the tight quarters.

"I told you. I'm here to kill you. To eliminate the threat."

He shook his head. "I'm not a threat to anyone who cares about justice."

"Justice." Her smile was sad. "I used to believe in justice. Now, I just hope the world survives."

Remembering Victoria's warning, Zorro took a step back. "You think I'm a threat to the world?"

"I'm not insane, de la Vega, so you can wipe that thought from your brain." _Definitely insane_, Zorro thought. She shook her head. "I'm sane. And I know more than you could ever believe."

"Try me."

"Sorry. I've studied you, more than I needed to. I didn't realize the philandering husband of the kind lady was the _pueblo_'s hero until tonight."

"I'm not a philandering husband." His denial was weak even to his own ears.

"Not what I heard. Not that I paid much attention. I do not care for rumors. They hurt too much, even when they are true."

"I am not having sex with Tasia!" he shouted.

The lady shrugged. "Not yet, anyway. But then she always liked playing with her food."

Zorro was certain his ears were playing tricks on him. "Her food?"

The lady's tongue slid over her teeth as she chuckled. "Just a figure of speech," she said. "I do have to warn you though. The second she kisses you, you're a goner. Of course, there will not be any more chances for her to take you."

Zorro's arm trembled as he remembered the feel of her lips on his, her tongue twirling with his. "She's already kissed me," he confessed. It felt good to confess. He had been unable to admit the darkness in his soul to even the good _padre_.

The tip of her blade was at his throat. He felt a trickle of blood creep down his chest. He had failed to even see her move. "You have kissed her?"

"She kissed me," he said, and then felt worse for putting the blame on her. Who initiated the kiss didn't matter. What mattered was that he had responded in kind.

The lady's eyes never left his. "She kissed you? And what happened?"

She had a blade to his throat and she was worried about a kiss? He was so tired. Too tired to think. Or to fight. "Why don't you just kill me—"

"You resisted her. How?" she demanded.

He stared at his captor. "I thought about Victoria."

The blade left his throat. Slowly. "You thought of your wife and were able to push her away? I do not believe it."

He rubbed his throat, but not where the blade had been. His memory, usually a blessing, was providing the memory of Tasia's lips there. He tried to rub it away. "Yes."

Her hand replaced his. They both gasped when their skin met. "She kissed you here, and you still pushed her away."

He had no response to that question. Licking her lips, she pulled her hand away. "I think I misjudged you. Perhaps your wife is correct. You are a good man. And a very strong man."

Guilt had him shaking his head. "No," he managed to say.

"You have nothing to feel guilty about, Diego. It's just desire."

He lowered his own sword and took another step back. "It is a betrayal of my vows. And of my love for her."

The lady saluted him again before putting her sword back into its sheath. "Actually, your resistance is a testament to your love for her."

He stared at the mad woman and wondered what he should do about her. If he knocked her unconscious and took her to the doctor, would he be endangering his secret? If he allowed her to roam free, was he endangering her or someone else? She was fast with the blade.

"She's your greatest strength."

"I know." Her strength had always kept him going strong when he had exhausted his own.

"Go to her. Make sure she knows that you adore her. And then maybe we can win," she said.

Zorro leaned against the table. "Win?"

"The upcoming battle."

"Battle?" His brain struggled to follow, a feeling that Diego wasn't used to feeling. "Soldiers are coming?"

She smiled. "Sort of."

"Mexico?"

"No," she replied with a grin that was driving him _loco_. "I told you. I'm not interested in petty politics."

Zorro was too tired to argue that a major war between Spain and Mexico would not, by any definition, be petty politics. "You are interested in seeing the world survive."

"Exactly," she said. "And I think I might be able to do it now-with your help."

He blinked. It was the only response he would give.

"Go, get some rest. You're going to need it."

"Before I help you save the world."

"Yeah." She walked towards Tornado. "I'll see you tomorrow night. Then we will talk."

Z Z Z

Alejandro awoke with a start. His son was standing in front of the fireplace looking as surprised to see Alejandro as Alejandro felt seeing him. The soft glow starting to ease its way through the windows told him that it was almost dawn. That realization made him feel ill. There was only one reason why a married man would be sneaking into his own home at dawn.

He shot out of the chair. His fist throbbed when it connected with Diego's chin. His son stumbled back but remained upright. But the ill feeling in his stomach only increased. He had never struck his son before. Never.

"Father?"

"Fix it, Diego."

Diego used the back of his hand to wipe the trickle of blood from his lip. "Fix—"

Whatever anger that had been there left Diego's eyes. "Father," he said, taking a step forward. "You've been hurt."

Alejandro looked down and was startled to see the blood still on his clothes. He had meant change the shirt, but after he left Victoria neatly tucked into her bed, he had been too exhausted to think. The need to talk to his son had been the only thought he had allowed in his head. "It's not my blood."

"Not your-Victoria," he whispered. Alejandro was startled by the terror he saw in those eyes. For all of the times, he had called his son 'coward,' he realized that he had never seen him truly frightened by anything.

"She's all right, Diego."

"She was hurt. At the tavern?" Diego started to pace in front of him. "I should have been there to escort her home."

"Raul brought her home." Alejandro thought his punch had less impact on his son. He saw the pain race its way through his son's body.

"What happened?" Diego asked, his voice still shaken.

"I don't know. She came home terrified, demanding to speak to you."

Diego turned away from him, hiding his reaction. In the soft light of an approaching dawn, Alejandro could see his son clearer than he ever had. Diego was always hiding from him. A painful realization he would face later, much later, when he had regained the strength to face it.

"Raul said she spoke to a lady at the tavern."

A soft gasp warned Alejandro that his son knew more of what happened tonight than he did. "A lady?"

"Raul said when he came out of the kitchen, Victoria was standing, looking at the door, her fists clenched so tightly that her fingernails tore through the palm of her hand."

"That's where the blood came from?"

"Yes," he said, wishing he could find some way of comforting the trembling man in front of him. At the same time, he wanted to shake him for being a fool. "Camila heard the noise and dressed her palms. She gave Victoria something to make her sleep."

"Good."

"I had to tell her that you weren't home." The anger in his voice even made him wince.

Diego turned. "Father, I—"

"Don't." He'd rather be condemned a coward than hear his son confirm his worst suspicions. "I don't want to know where you were tonight."

The two de la Vega men stared at one another. Finally, Diego broke away his gaze and nodded. "I'm glad you were here to comfort her."

"You should have been." Alejandro sighed and rubbed his hand over his aching eyes. "You will be with her when she awakes." Diego would be there, even if Alejandro had to tie him to the chair.

"Of course," his son agreed. Diego looked down at the floor. "It's the second time she's been injured since we were married."

Alejandro sighed and sank down onto the edge of the chair. "Yes, it is."

"I didn't protect her then either."

Alejandro almost let the subject die a natural death, but he had done that months ago. And his son's marriage had yet to recover from whatever strain those days had put on it. Maybe if Alejandro had been willing to discuss the subject, just maybe his son could have had the marriage he wanted for him.

"Diego, I know that you are jealous of Zorro—"

"I hate him."

He took a step back at the furious words that erupted from his son's mouth. "Diego, he has helped a lot of people."

"Everyone but me."

He didn't know this man. Pain hit him with that thought. His son was a stranger. "That's a selfish comment, Diego."

"Yes, it is," Diego agreed with no hints of remorse in his voice. "But it is the truth."

"I know that you were angry that Victoria was hurt protecting him—"

"She should have stayed out of the way."

Alejandro stared at Diego. "Her injury was minor. He would have died."

"Then he should have died."

Diego took a deep shuddering breath while Alejandro struggled to gather his thoughts. He had known that Diego's marriage had suffered from Victoria's sacrifice that day, but he had not realized the depth of Diego's feelings.

"How?"

Alejandro didn't understand the question his son spit at him. "How? What—"

"How did you keep going after mother died?"

Alejandro remembered the days after Elena's death. Most of the days were hazy, but he could remember Diego. Holding him. Assuring him while he felt every word he uttered was a lie. "I just did, Diego."

"If she died, Father, I don't think I could."

Blinking back tears, Alejandro struggled to understand the young man before him. Until this moment, he thought his son's feelings for Victoria were those of a friend. He thought the marriage one of convenience more than love.

"I need to go see her," Diego said with a clipped voice. Turning, he walked from the room and left a tired old man alone with his thoughts.

Z Z Z

Every muscle, every bone, every sinew screamed for sleep, but Diego's mind was too confused to allow for an easy rest. He sat down on the bed beside his injured wife and carefully took one of her injured hands into his own. Fatigue settled onto his shoulders in a way unknown to him until now. He kept hurting her. Kept putting her in danger.

He could feel her looking at him before he saw it. His eyes left her hands and traveled to her exhausted face. Tears were flowing. "I'm so sorry, Diego. You were right not to trust me."

Diego remembered the punch his father threw earlier, and it had surprised him slightly less than her words. "Not trust you?"

She sniffed. "I betrayed you."

"Betrayed me." Raul.

"The woman I warned you about. She came to the tavern." Her breathing was growing more ragged as she spoke. Diego stroked her arm, trying to calm her. "When we were talking, she realized that you were Zorro."

He expected to feel betrayed, but instead he felt a hint of amusement. "She's _loco_."

"She wants to kill you."

"I know," he murmured, remembering the feel of her blade against his throat. "She thinks I'm a threat to the safety of the world."

Victoria sat up, pushing against her injured hands. "You met her."

The lie rolled to his tongue. Lie and protect her from worry. Habit. But today he needed her. Needed her thoughts. Needed her shoulder to lean against. "She was in the cave when I came home."

Victoria looked physically ill. "She found you."

"Victoria, I doubt you—"

"I gave it away. I let your secret slip somehow."

He thought of the woman and her words. "Maybe. Maybe not."

His wife stared at him. "Maybe not?"

"She's _loco_. Maybe you did say something that gave it away, but since she believes I'm going to destroy the world, there is a good chance she made a lucky guess."

Victoria laughed. "A lucky guess? How many officials, how many bandits, have tried to guess your identity?"

The sound of her laughter lifted some of the fatigue from his shoulders. She really was his strength. And his weakness. "They were all sane."

Running a bandaged hand through her mussed hair, Victoria winced and said, "That doesn't make sense."

"If you went and told Mendoza—" She flinched at the words. "That I was Zorro, what would he do?"

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "He would arrest you. Hand you to the _alcalde_."

Diego found the strength to smile. "Really?"

"No," she realized. "He would laugh at me."

"And call it _loco_."

Her hand touched the base of his throat. "How—"

"She's fast."

Victoria's lips trembled. "She got her blade to your throat?"

Again, the lie jumped to his tongue. Again, his need overrode it. Tomorrow, when he had rested, he would condemn himself for worrying her. "She was very fast."

Her fingers moved to his cut lip. "She struck you?"

"No," he admitted. "Father did."

Her eyes widened. "Father did this?"

"I deserve it. For worrying you," he said.

She spoke not a word in his defense. Instead, she said words that made him feel like the world could somehow become right again. "Will you hold me?"

Nodding, he gathered her in his arms and lay down on their bed. As the sun rose, he felt his wife relax in his arms. He felt himself following her. For today, sleep was again an act of rest instead of an act of reluctant surrender.

Z Z Z

"Who is he?"

Innocenzio rubbed his hands against her arms. Tasia allowed herself to enjoy the sensation for a brief moment before pulling away. "Reyes. The man who gave me life."

"Your father?" Innocenzio studied the portrait in front of them. Tasia knew he had never liked how she carefully she treated the painting, or how she hung it in such a prominent place in her bedroom.

She laughed, knowing that Reyes would find it amusing, too. "My father was a drunken fool who liked hitting my mother and me. I killed him. The townspeople—" Tasia deliberately forced her jaw to relax and her fingers to uncurl. It infuriated her that those fools could still bother her all these years later. "They had no sympathy for me. My mother despised me, and I'm not sure she was wrong to do so."

"You saved her from being beaten."

Tasia nodded, remembering the sound of flesh slapping flesh. "I remember one time he beat her so severely that she could not stand straight for a month."

"What happened?"

Tasia shuddered when she remembered the emaciated corpse that answered the door the following year. "When I returned home, she was dying of starvation."

Innocenzio was silent for several minutes. "You killed her."

"It was kinder," she said, still tasting the fury. "Our patron used her as a warning on the evils of killing strong healthy males."

"They didn't realize you had killed him?"

Tasia shook her head at his question. "Oh, they knew. Even my mother called me names as they dragged me down the street. The landowner was not there to pass judgment so they locked me in a cellar. When the executioner came to enjoy my body before he helped hang it, I used a rock to knock him unconscious."

She closed her eyes, allowing the memories to overflow her in a way she had refused for centuries. The terror, the smell of the dirt, the feel of his hands tearing at her clothes, digging into her skin, rushed through her mind. "I ran straight into Reyes, who was there to visit the landowner. He had heard about my plight from the servants. I think he thought I would be an easy meal. Instead, when he found me, he said, 'You were meant to rule the world, my dear.'"

Innocenzio snorted. "He had a way with words."

She wrapper her arms around him, pressing herself into his side and resting her head on his shoulder. Together they stared at the portrait. "Actually, women usually ran from him, even with all his money. He could charm a horse into running away from him in terror. But then women mattered little to him. All he really cared about was power. And he knew I was the key."

"The key?"

"I'm destined to rule the world, Innocenzio," she whispered into his ear.

He spun around, causing her to almost lose her footing. "What?"

"A prophecy, given centuries ago, almost guarantees it."

"Almost?"

She took a step forward and laid a careful hand on Reyes's painted cheek. "One threat could stop me."

"What?"

"A who, actually," she replied. "Zorro."

"Diego de la Vega."

"Yes."

Innocenzio inhaled sharply. "Then we need to kill him."

"No," she answered. "No, I need him by my side, Innocenzio."

"He's a threat."

She turned and looked at him. "Or my greatest weapon. The prophecy is slightly vague on that issue."

"He would never help someone as evil as you conquer the world, Tasia."

She laughed. "He wants me, Innocenzio. That gives me control. I can sense the power in him. Once I turn him, I will be able to control him and that power."

"Don't underestimate him," Innocenzio said, grasping her shoulders. "He's dangerous. Even when I was a human, I could see the power in him. His mind is as much a weapon as is his blade."

"Oh, I don't underestimate his strength, but I do know a hungry man when I see him. Besides, I have more than my body to tempt him." Innocenzio raised an eyebrow. "Knowledge. The man loves to learn."

Innocenzio's eyes told her he was lost in memories. "Yes, he does love his books." His focused back on her. "But don't underestimate his love for his father. Or the deaf boy. Or Victoria."

"Victoria?" She laughed. "I don't think I have to worry about her. Have I not kept you up to date on all the gossip? Apparently they both found that wanting was so much more fun than having."

Z Z Z


	7. Chapter 7

Alejandro was pleased to see his daughter-in-law sitting in the library reading a new book from Spain. A small smile on her lips lifted his spirits. "_Hola!_ Victoria," he greeted her.

She tried to smile when she saw him. Nibbling on her lip, she carefully closed here book. "Father, I want to apologize for last night." She patted her stomach. "I'm afraid I let some old fears overwhelm me."

"Victoria, you have nothing to apologize for," he assured her. He studied her features, and was pleased to see none of the terror he saw there last night. "You have spoken to my son."

"Yes," she said. Her small smile returned. "He is still sleeping."

He tensed at the words, expecting her to be upset that her husband had arrived in their bed so early this morning, but she seemed unconcerned. "And he helped calm your old fears?"

She glanced out the window. "Some."

Sheer willpower kept him from asking about her fears. What had driven her last night? After a short conversation with Raul at the tavern this morning, he doubted the woman had any involvement with his son. Raul said she was dirty, and wore clothes too big for her small frame. The patches had been plentiful and easy to see.

Turning to look at him, she smiled. "I sent a message to Raul. He should be here soon."

Alejandro bit back words. "I see."

She nodded and glanced out the window again. "It's time I stayed home."

"Past time," he said, letting his thoughts escape. No matter how many times he had practiced hiding them since Diego and Victoria married, his thoughts still yearned to escape.

She smiled and rubbed her belly. "Yes, past time."

He turned to leave and then remembered his conversation with Diego early this morning. Remembered the regret he felt for not speaking up sooner. "Victoria."

Her shoulders tensed. "Yes?"

"I know Diego is not the type of husband you wanted."

"Type of husband?" she said, obviously not understanding the comment.

"He's not like Zorro. Not exciting. Not romantic—"

"Father," she said, carefully using her arms to lift herself out of the chair. "Diego de la Vega is the most exciting man I've ever met."

He wondered if he had been in the sun too long. "What?"

Her eyes twinkled as she repeated, "Diego de la Vega is the most exciting man I've ever met. And the most romantic."

"Then why—"

She frowned and looked down at the floor. "I—it's complicated."

Alejandro made a vow to start paying closer attention to those he loved. First he found that Diego truly loved his wife. And now he found that Victoria truly loved her husband. So much for his certainty that it was a marriage of convenience.

"Victoria, I don't understand what is happening in this home. But if you love him—and I know he loves you—then work on it."

Victoria continued to look down at her feet. "He loves me?"

So he wasn't the only one surprised by the idea? "He never told you."

"Oh, he told me. Many times," Victoria said, finally looking up at him with eyes that were shining with unshed tears. "It's just—I thought maybe—"

The knock at the door kept her from finishing the sentence. "I'm sorry," she said, wiping her eyes. A false smile was firmly put back in place as she waited for her guest to be escorted into the room.

"I will leave you two to your business," Alejandro said.

She nodded. "Thank you."

Z Z Z

Zorro followed the trail left by whatever was killing cattle. The first sign left by the silent killer. Even though he had gone to bed just as the sun rose, he felt wonderfully rested. Holding Victoria, feeling connected with her again, had helped him relax in a way sleep never would.

The trail ended in the middle of nowhere. Zorro jumped off of Tornado and sighed. "It looks as if we've come to another dead end, my friend."

"Indeed it does, Diego."

The words froze the blood in his veins. The voice stopped his heart. He forced himself to turn and face the threat behind him. A ghost. Former _alcalde_ of Los Angeles. "Ramone."

The ghost smiled. "I no longer go by that name, Diego. It is the past. And as my lovely lady tried to inform me, the past is unimportant."

"If the past is so unimportant, why are you here, Luis?"

The ghost laughed. "You think I'm here for revenge, Diego? I admit I did consider it when I started getting my memory back, but my lady reminded me that the future is what matters."

"The future?"

"Yes, Diego. The future."

Warm arms wrapped around him from behind as the scent of a lady's bathwater overwhelmed his senses. "Are you ready for the future, Diego?" a melodic voice whispered in his ear.

He shuddered as her fingers worked their way between the buttons of his shirt and stroked the skin beneath. "The f-future," he stuttered.

"Do you ever think about it? What little toys mankind will tinker with in the future? Where he will go? What he will learn?"

He swallowed. "Yes."

"Wouldn't you love to see it happen?"

See it happen? The future. The inventions that would be invented. The discoveries that would be discovered. Where would science lead them? So much had been learned in the last 100 years. Where would the next 100 years take them?

"Yes," he sighed, yearning to know.

"Then why don't you join us?" A seductive whispering promising him the future.

The future. His child. Victoria. Gray haired. Wrinkled face. Grandchildren playing at her feet as she laughed. That was the future he wanted.

He pulled away from Tasia's grasp. "Join you?"

She reached for him. The fury disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "You know you want to join me, Diego."

The insane world of this morning was back. Nothing made sense. "Join you? In what?"

"You'll soon know," she replied with a smile that was too confident. He tasted fear. "Come, Innocenzio, let us go home."

They were gone before he could think of a single word to say.

Z Z Z

"He's amazing," she said out loud. A light wind flirted her dress about her legs. She had tracked the Fox, still expecting him to disappoint her. Instead the lesson learned last night was reinforced. "He has the strength to resist the Call."

The Call. Every Vampire knew of it. Had experienced it. Some longer than others. She longer than any other known vampire. Aldrick refused to change her while she remained a child. Even now she debated if that refusal was selfish or selfless of him. Selfish to wait until she could be the lover he wanted. Selfless to be willing to deny the urge to procreate. To make a new vampire.

The Call. Powerful, primitive drive to procreate. The humans thought anyone could be a vampire. Not true. Only certain humans possessed the ability to be changed, and the Call let the vampire know who could be a "child" and who was only food.

After Tasia left the area, she approached the shaking man in the field. "I told you she liked to play with her food."

The man continued to pet his stallion. "Food."

"Food. It's what you are."

The horse snorted, conveying his opinion. And his master's, too, she knew. "You are both _loco_."

"No, we are both damned. According to legend at least."

His laughter boomed across the empty landscape. "Damned? You are not damned. That is me."

His pain hurt her in ways she thought forgotten. "Why? Because you yearn for her? Because you yearn for me?"

He took a step closer to his horse. "I adore Victoria. She's beautiful. Inside. Tasia is dark. Rotted inside by her beliefs. Yet, I let her kiss me. I let her touch me. After spending last night in Victoria's arms, I let her touch me. And I wanted more."

"You wanted what only she could give you." Even last night she would have laughed hysterically at the idea of offering this man-or any man-comfort.

Finally, he shuffled to look at her. "Victoria—"

"Can give you love. Companionship. Children."

"Yes." The yearning both broke her heart and awed her.

"Tasia can give you life."

The masked man remained silent for a moment. The wind blew his cape around him. The moonlight revealed the blankness on his face. "Give me life?"

"Yes," she said, taking a step towards him. The horse, sensing her differences, took a step backwards. Animals always knew.

No doubt in his mind now that she was completely _loco_. "I am alive."

Closing her eyes, she opened her senses. She heard bugs scratching across the dry ground. She could smell the rabbits sleeping beneath their feet. The wind played across her skin. "No," she whispered, opening her eyes again. "You are not alive. Not the way we are."

"I need to get home," he said, putting a foot in the stirrup.

"Of course, according to legend, we are dead."

He froze. "Dead?"

"According to legend."

"Which makes you—" he said, looking over his shoulder.

"A vampire," she answered.

"A vampire." He laughed. The sound actually frightened her.

Z Z Z

Thirty minutes later, Zorro's sides still ached from the insane laughter that had overtaken him. He and the woman who had almost killed him in his lair last night were walking towards the de la Vega lands. Their border was just over the ridge. Usually, he would do anything to keep anyone from seeing Zorro near de la Vega lands, but this enemy already knew his identity.

Terror should be overwhelming him. Thoughts of what to do and how to protect those he loved should be racing through his mind as he implemented one of his numerous plans for escape. However, tonight, he lacked the ability to feel.

At least he knew that the woman beside him was sane. During their conversation tonight, he had come to realize truth in the old adage that the simplest answer was often the correct one. The world had not gone insane; he had.

The answer made sense. It made sense of why his marriage-which should have been perfect-had been filled with pain and confusion. It made sense as to why his father no longer joined them for breakfast or why Alejandro could no longer meet his son's eyes. It made sense as to why Los Angeles had become a _pueblo_ frightened by legends.

"Vampires exist and live among us," he said, recalling her earlier words. After his attack of laughter, she had spat torrents of information at him. Information that his brain had tucked away, but for which he had no reaction.

"Yes," she said. He could feel her eyes on him, studying him, wondering. Did she realize that he was the insane one? He shuddered when he thought of _Don_ Carlito. Would he spend the rest of his days being tied to a bed like that poor man? Or could he beg his father to end his misery?

Her hand landed on his forearm. Staring down at it, he stopped his ramble towards home. "I'm not insane," she insisted.

He lacked the energy to smile at her. "I believe you are sane," he replied and began walking again, letting her hand slide off his arm.

She skipped to catch up to him. "You are not _loco_."

"That I don't believe." Victoria. He needed to get home to Victoria. Away from this woman. Away from this life. He needed to put away the mask forever and concentrate on the future. He needed to concentrate on his son or daughter.

Before he could blink, she stood in front of him. "I am a vampire."

Z Z Z

Victoria blinked as she slowly became aware of the world around her. Seeing him, she jerked and partially sat up, resting her weight on her right arm. "Di—Zorro?"

Glancing down, he saw his hands wrapped in the black gloves. He had left the lair without leaving Zorro behind. He had needed to get to Victoria. With short, jerky movement, he yanked off the hat and the mask, before taking off the gloves. He leaned down and pushed them under the bed.

"Diego," Victoria said, setting up in bed. She reached for him. "What's wrong?"

He pulled off his boots and sat down on the bed. Taking a deep breath, he reached for his wife. He let go of that breath when she gathered him in her arms without a word of protest. He ignored the slightly mocking voice that reminded him that tonight he had come to her as her masked hero instead of her weak husband.

His head settled on her breast as they fell back onto the bed, and his hand landed on the slope of her belly. Listening to her heartbeat, feeling the protesting movements of his child, he finally started to feel again. This was the future. The future he wanted. Closing his eyes, he allowed sleep to overtake him. And he dreamed. Of his unborn children and their children.

Z Z Z

Innocenzio had remained away from her most of the night. No doubt he could feel her fury. It heated her.

"I did warn you that he would be difficult."

She snarled at him. He smiled. "Why not force him? You are stronger than him."

She continued to stand on the patio, daring the hints of sunlight starting to streak the sky. Innocenzio remained hidden in the shadows. Part of her wanted to mock him for being a coward, even though another part was amazed that he remained awake so close to dawn.

"Ah," he said, taking a step outside. "You find it more amusing to break them first."

Staring at him, she smiled. "Yes, I do."

"You lacked the time to play with my mind," he murmured.

"Yes, I did. I only had minutes to decide if I preferred you as dinner or as companion."

"He's not easy to break," he said, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her hair, forcing her to look up at him.

"But he is breakable."

"Maybe."

She smiles as he begins kissing her neck. "You would've been difficult to break, too."

"Yes," he agreed.

She pushed him into the house, falling down on top of him, as the sun began to burn their skin. Overwhelmed by passion, she forgot the Dark One who resisted her lure. There was no need for her to worry, though. She'd break him soon enough.

Z Z Z

He awoke in her arms. Enjoying the sensation, he refused to open his eyes. He wanted to put off starting the day as long as possible. Wanted to ignore the talk of bloodless cattle, vampires, and insanity. Here, in her arms, he believed he could conquer the world, let alone a vampire. Or insanity.

Her fingers ran through his hair. "Do you want to hide in here all day, Diego?"

Breathing in the smell of her bath water, he spoke the truth. "Yes."

Her chuckle made him feel a foot taller. "I'm not sure Father will let us stay in bed all day."

"We'll just ignore his knocking."

Her fingers continued to play in his hair. "He's a de la Vega. He won't quit even if his knuckles are bloody."

Diego sighed. De la Vega stubbornness rang true for every generation. He wondered what battles he would be having with his own child all too soon. Vague memories of his mother laughing about how stubborn he was as a two-year old played through his mind. She had continuously reminded him and his father of that fact his twelfth year, the year that was the start of some epic de la Vega battles in the _hacienda_. Her last year on this earth.

Nodding, he pulled himself away from her warmth. The weight he had been ignoring settled back on his shoulders. Without looking at her, he pushed himself from the bed and began taking off his outfit. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Her voice was soft, confused. At least the cool distance was not yet back.

"For coming to you last night as Zorro. For having you see him be weak." His fingers were shaking. It made the buttons difficult.

"Zorro didn't come to me last night." Her firm voice told him of her conviction. "Diego did."

He turned to look at her. "Is Zorro such a hero to you that you cannot see his weakness?"

"A hero to me?" she paused in the middle of getting out of their bed. "He's not a hero to me."

"You love him." The words cut his tongue as he said them.

"Love him? I hate him!" She stood by their bed, her fingers curled into tight fists.

His shirt fell to the floor from his hands. "Hate him?" He wished last night's emotional numbness would return.

The look of horror on her face told him more than he wanted to know. Her words were truth. A truth she had struggled hard to hide. She blinked away tears and nodded. "I hate him."

"And you hate _Don_ Diego."

"Yes." She turned away from him and headed towards her dressing room. "They both keep the man I love away from me."

Raul. The words he had spent months dreading were finally going to be spoken aloud.

"Yes, they both keep me from Diego." He blinked as she opened the doors. "As I told Father earlier, Diego de la Vega is the most exciting man I'd ever met."

Victoria's words were more difficult to understand than the "vampire" lady's. "You think Diego de la Vega is exciting?"

She paused in her forward movement. He strained to hear her reply. "Yes. Far more exciting than Zorro."

Taking a step forward, holding out his hand, he said, "But you hate him?"

Finally, she turned to look at him. Tears were in her eyes. On their wedding day, he had taken her into the cave and promised her that she would always be happy.

"I hate _Don_ Diego. I love Diego."

He blinked. He wasn't used to feeling confused. "I—The same person—I mean I'm—"

Her hair bounced around her face as she shook her head. "Zorro's mask is easy to see. _Don_ Diego is a mask most people don't even know is there." She laid her hand on the door frame and leaned on it. "I used to love Zorro. And I considered _Don_ Diego my friend, but then you ripped the masks off and let me see _him_. Diego de la Vega. And I knew then that the love and friendships I felt for the masks were weak."

"Victoria—"

"And then last night, you let me see him again."

"I—I was tired and weak—"

She took a step towards him. "That's the man I love. He's passionate. About everything. Politics. Poetry. Family. Science. Me. He's so passionate that sometimes he burns himself out, and he needs me to help renew him. Needs me to be a shoulder for him to cry on when he feels the cut of his father's tongue. Needs me to hold him after seeing horrors that nobody should ever have to see."

"Victoria—"

"You let me see him for a few months, and then you took him away, hid him behind masks because I wasn't the wife you expected me to be."

Vampires were surely easier to understand than Victoria. "Not the wife I expected you to be?"

She wiped at her eyes angrily. "My family did not raise me to be the proper wife of a _caballero_."

She sounded as if she was quoting someone. "Victoria, I never expected you to be the very proper wife of a _caballero_."

Her eyes looked wounded at his words. "You expected me to know more than I did."

"No," he said. "I expected you to do what you wanted to do. My father and I are hardly proper _caballeros_."

"_Doña_ Abegail said—"

"_Doña_ Abegail? Victoria, she is a hateful woman in an unhappy marriage whose only pleasure in life is making other people as miserable as her. Why on earth would you listen to her?"

Victoria bit down on her lip. "She was your mother's friend."

Diego remembered his mother and father having heated discussions about the woman. _Don_ Alejandro hated watching his wife be misused by a woman no one liked. Elena would be horrified to see what the woman had done to the once very open social structure in Los Angeles. "My mother was kind to her because _Doña_ Abegail had no friends in the territory. But she was always tense after spending even a few minutes in the woman's presence!"

His father warned him that the ladies in the territory could be deadly vipers. The warning had been mixed in with many warnings on why his marriage to Victoria would be a mistake. Diego had loved that his father had been concerned for him, but thought he lacked the knowledge to give him advice on his marriage. He didn't know that Diego was Zorro. So, like many of his father's warnings, he had ignored it. Victoria had been a part of many social occasions in Los Angeles, and she always handled herself with poise and grace.

Perhaps, like many of his father's warnings, he should have listened. "Victoria, my only expectation was for you to be you."

The knock they were joking about earlier arrived. "Diego, Antonio is here! I need you to join us in a few minutes."

"He'll join you in the library," Victoria called.

Every muscle in Diego's body protested. Finally, the icy barrier that had surrounded his wife was beginning to fall. A barrier he had started to believe was permanent. "We need to talk."

"And the de la Vega horses need to be bred to Antonio's horses. Father has said so many times this week."

He smiled and held open his arms, holding his breath. He released it when she walked into his embrace. "We need to talk."

"Tonight," she said.

Pushing her lightly away, he looked into her eyes. Then, he kissed her. He kissed her in a way he hadn't kissed her in months. When he pulled away, they both struggled to breathe. "Tonight," he promised, and then he began rushing to get ready for a meeting he knew he was in no shape to be a part of. His father would surely complain later about his lack of attention.

Z Z Z

Alejandro noticed his son's lack of concentration immediately. For all of his complaints about his son, he never doubted that Diego would be ready to take over the family estate when he was gone. But the sparkle in the eyes, the bounce in his step, had been missing for too long. Alejandro's joy kept any complaints from his lips. Perhaps his son and daughter could work out their differences before their child was born.

"Diego, we did well today," he said as they walked into the library.

His son, looking over his shoulder, nodded. "Yes, Antonio seemed pleased, too."

"We both should make a tidy profit from this deal."

"And some good new bloodlines will be introduced to both our stocks," Diego said, sitting on the edge of his seat.

Alejandro hid his smile, remembering a time when he pranced around like a cat while waiting to see his bride. Even his skin had felt uncomfortable while taking care of business when all he wanted to do was be with his wife. "Victoria told you that she has decided to rest from the tavern until after the baby is born?"

Diego's attention focused on his father. "No, she didn't."

"Oh, I thought—anyway, it will be nice to have her around the _hacienda_ during the day. I worried about her working too hard."

His son frowned. "Father, are you disappointed in Victoria?"

"What?"

Diego shook his head. "Victoria apparently has been the focus of some negative attention by our neighbors."

Alejandro frowned. "Attention?"

"_Doña_ Abegail for one." Alejandro remained silent. "You knew?"

"You didn't?"

"I-" Diego shook his head. "I thought our neighbors loved Victoria."

"Most of them do. Some love her and still resent her change of status. She could have your mother's power, if she chose to exert it. If they allowed her."

His son frowned. "Mother's power?"

His son naivety worried him sometimes. "Diego, your mother was the most powerful woman in the area."

"She was the reason so many of our neighbors forgot the rules of Spanish society."

Alejandro nodded. "Yes, she was. I admit when I brought my Spanish bride to the colonies, I thought she would be horrified. I worried that I would have to take my bride and new son back to Spain within a year."

"She loved it here."

Those first few weeks home had been filled with the joy of watching his wife fall in love with the land he considered home. Most nights they had been hiding away from everyone else in the household watching the sun set and the stars rise. Whatever awe she had felt around the ladies who had tried to maintain an iron hand on the social life of Los Angeles quickly disappeared. "Yes, she did. A de la Vega in every way except blood."

Diego grinned, understanding. "Like Victoria."

Alejandro, for the first time, compared Victoria to his bride. Realized that Diego was right. Elena would have approved of his son's choice. Perhaps she could have warned him that feelings existed between the two that he never suspected until he last few days.

Miguel rushed into the room. "_Don_ Alejandro, the _alcalde_ has arrested the entire Vasquez family for failure to pay taxes."

He clicked his tongue. "He's upset that Rico insulted him at the tavern the other night, and he's taking it out on the entire family." He turned to ask his son to join him, but saw the answer in his son's eyes before he even asked the question. Maybe Victoria could inspire his son to take a more active role in the _pueblo_. "I need to go protest the _alcalde_'s action."

Diego appeared to shrink. "Yes, someone needs to teach the _alcalde_ a lesson."

Z Z Z

"You could have killed them," a familiar but unwelcome voice said behind him as he watched the unconscious bandits head into the _pueblo_ on the back of their horses.

"No," Zorro said. "I could not."

"Victoria was right about you."

His shoulders tensed. "Right about me?"

"You are a good man."

His face burned beneath the mask, and his heart lightened. Victoria still considered him a good man, even though he had given her little reason to believe it recently. "I try to be."

Her smile carried in her voice. "You succeed."

He thought of Tasia's lips on his. Of his father's disappointed face. Of Victoria's shattered look. "Not always."

Her laughter was light. "None of us succeed all the time."

The shouts of the happy citizens of Los Angeles carried across the wind reached his ears. He smiled. The throbbing knuckles, the exhaustion, were worth it. They were why he fought so hard to be a good man.

Patting his stallion, he allowed himself a few moments to enjoy the laughter erupting from Los Angeles. He even enjoyed the _alcalde_'s bellowing for Mendoza. And the knowledge that Victoria was home waiting for him made him feel as if life could be no better.

"I need your help."

Zorro sighed. Life could be better. Whatever mysterious disease that was killing cattle could be treated. And _loco_ ladies who believed in vampires could be helped by someone else. "I have an appointment with my wife tonight. One I should have kept hours ago."

He had felt each and every agonizing minute, too. After breaking the Vasquez out of jail and threatening the _alcalde_, he had helped search for a missing boy, who had somehow managed to climb half-way down a cliff. Zorro's shoulder still throbbed from the wrenching it had received in that rescue. Mendoza had been with the family when he dropped the boy off, and the friendly sergeant had informed him that the coach had been robbed by a group of bandits. Two hours of tracking and a short but brutal fight later, and he was now free to go home. To his wife. Who wanted to talk.

"She'll have to wait." The voice was cool and authoritative, and he hated it.

Turning to look at her, he flinched. Gone was the messy mane. In its place was freshly washed hair pulled into a careful bun. Her old, worn clothes were replaced with attire tailored to fit her body. The dress lacked embellishments, but it was made of the finest linen. Diego noticed that her flowing skirt was actually split down the middle like pants. While her blade remained at her side, her stance spoke of a woman on a mission. His heart beat increased.

Her smile was mocking. "You don't like my new appearance, Diego?"

"Zorro," he corrected her automatically. "As for your appearance, you look lovely, as I'm sure you know."

"Sometimes, you are too much of a gentleman, but thank you." She nodded her head. "Your dislike of my appearance has nothing to do with my beauty and everything to do with the fact I now look like someone whose word you'll have to accept."

He could not deny the truth. Her tattered and filthy look matched his idea of a _loco_ woman. The lady in front of him now seemed competent. If she came to him and said that she needed help with bandits, he would have paid attention.

"Vampires don't exist."

She smiled again. "We had this conversation last night."

Indeed they had. He remembered her words in spite of himself. "Your imagination would best be used to write fiction," he said.

She opened her mouth, obviously to repeat some of her story last night. Stopping herself, she sighed. "I need your help, Diego."

"I fight bandits, Madam. Not vampires."

"Tonight, you fight vampires."

Z Z Z


	8. Chapter 8

Hours later, Esperanza sat on the edge of a rocky cliff. Most of her hair now fell around her shoulders. Dirt smudged her cheeks, and the smell of smoke clung to her. "Odd."

The still statue of a man finally spoke. His voice was hoarse. "What's odd?"

"This feeling I'm having."

"Feeling?"

"Guilt."

His head cranked around to look at her. "For killing those—those-."

She resisted the urge to smile, knowing he would not appreciate it. "No, for making you see something you did not want to see."

A deep ragged breath jerked its way from his body. His hand reached up and yanked off the mask. She doubted he had ever worn the outfit outside of his cave without that mask. It protected him in more ways than one. She understood the safe feeling of a mask.

"They were vampires." Each word spoke of disbelief.

"Yes," she answered. "They were."

"You said earlier you needed my help. You didn't need my help."

But she had. They both knew it. Diego, with his knowledge of the area and how Tasia's lover thought, had listed several possible hiding locations. Fortunately, the first on his list had held a group of vampire.

He stared at the sword lying beside him, still wrapped in its sheath, as if he'd never seen one before. "I stabbed him." Esperanza had seen it. At the beginning of their fight, he had tried to treat the enemy as if they were alive. He'd quickly realized differently. She thought she could live for centuries more and not forget the look of horror on his face as he'd stabbed his opponent. Not because his opponent kept fighting, but because he had actually put his blade into someone.

"He looked human. I felt sick. But then he kept moving. My strike should have killed him, but it left him undaunted."

Busy fighting her own battles, preparing for the mass killing she knew she had to do, she had seen his battle and feared he would be killed tonight. Even though she had told him all he needed to know, she knew he remained unconvinced of her sanity let alone the information she'd given. "He felt it. And if you struck him enough times, he would have fallen."

"But not died."

"No."

"Beheading. And fire."

Fire. She had used it tonight. Ignored her own terror of the flames and tossed several torches into the dark cave. Heard the screams. Watched some former friends burn. "Yes, we only die through beheading and fire."

"Not even age kills you."

"I look the same today as the day I turned. Time lacks the ability to affect me," she said. Her words were lies spoken in truth. She did look the same physically. However, her eyes spoke of a knowledge that would have horrified that young lady. And time affected her every day even if it could not line her face.

"Tell me the story again."

Dawn would be present in less than an hour. Standing, she offered him her hand. "I need to get back to my cave. Sunlight can harm my skin much faster than it can harm yours."

He nodded and accepted her help standing. He swayed as he leaned down to gather his sword. "Sunlight. Turns you to ash."

She winced, remembering Paris. "Not exactly. But the pain makes you yearn to be ash."

Tornado whined. Zorro blinked as if forgetting his stallion had been with him tonight. "As we go to your cave, you'll tell me again about vampires."

They were silent for the first 100 yards. "Fortunately, as we head towards my home, you'll also be heading home."

"Home," he said, putting his mask back on his face. He sounded more like the confident male he should be. He tripped over his feet, and grabbed Tornado to steady himself. "Victoria."

Ah, yes, the appointment with his wife he'd mentioned earlier. "Tell her the truth," she recommended. The sky was beautiful and clear. Not a night that should've seen so much death. When she returned her cave, when she was alone, she would cry herself to sleep.

"Tell her the truth?" Zorro's laughter mocked her. "Tell her I was watching vampires feast on animals' blood? Tell her I watched as you set fire to a group of men? That I searched the caves as soon as the flames expired, expecting to find half-burned carcasses but instead found nothing but ash?"

Esperanza stopped walking and turned to face her new ally. "Yes." She turned and began walking towards her cave. The sound of the horse's hooves told her that Zorro was following her.

With human hearing, she would not have heard him sigh, "I cannot tell her."

"Why not? She'll believe you." Victoria would believe the man if he told her he could build a machine to take them to the moon. Esperanza thought that Victoria's doubts about her marriage weren't really about her husband.

"She'll believe I'm crazy."

They walked a few more yards without speaking. "She's your strength, Diego."

"I know that, Esperanza. I've always known."

Shaking her head, she reached up and released the rest of her hair. "You have done a lousy job sharing that information with her."

_Last night, he would have disagreed,_ she thought as he remained silent. "Probably," he agreed after a few more steps.

The dry ground crunched beneath their feet. Her boots were practical. Necessary. Still, a part of her wanted to take them off and run barefoot. "Tell her. Let her know that you adore her. And trust her."

"That's never been in question."

"No?" The stars were really beautiful tonight. She sighed and reminded herself that the war was only starting. Something had changed in the vampire world. She saw enemies working together. Vampires were starting to strain against the rules that had bound them for centuries.

It was a war that could last for years. Decades. The weight of it pressed down on her shoulders, but she knew now that she was ready to fight it. But she needed allies. Needed them to trust her and to help her fight.

So, she opened her mouth and began telling her first ally the story of a place called Atlantis and the desire of some scientists to rid the world of death.

Such an arrogant desire. One that destroyed their society. She could only hope it wouldn't destroy the world.

Z Z Z

His head was too far from the ground. His arms too long, and his feet too big. His eyes blurred as he searched through drawer after drawer. It had to be here somewhere. Even though he tried to carefully shut one drawer, it still banged against the cabinet.

"Diego?" his wife's voice said from their bed.

"Go to sleep, Victoria," he said. Sleep would keep her safe from this twisted world they lived in.

Her hand touched his back as yet another drawer failed to give up the treasure he needed. He flinched, not realizing she had gotten out of bed. "Diego?"

"I'm sorry I woke you."

"Woke me?" Her hand pulled away from him. In his peripheral vision, he saw her arms cross. "Diego, you have been gone from our home since yesterday morning."

"Yes," he said, pushing aside books and papers in his search. "I freed Rico's family, and then I helped find Emilio."

"I know, but-"

"Then, I had to track the bandits that robbed the coach." Why did they always rob the coach around Los Angeles? Surely thieves should be smart enough to attack it at any part of the route except Los Angeles. He always captured them. Where was it?

"And you caught them and sent them back to the _pueblo_ last night. Father told me. I waited up for you-" He slammed that drawer shut and opened another. It should be here. "Diego, what's wrong?"

"You should lie down, get some more sleep. You and the baby need your rest," he said. Yes, rest. No rest for the wicked. Was he wicked? Esperanza told him that he could become one of those creatures, that he carried something inside of him that would allow the transformation.

His wife's hands gripped both of his arms. "Diego, look at me."

"You need rest," he repeated, continuing to search through the drawer in spite of his restrained arms.

"Diego, what happened after you defeated the bandits?" Victoria's voice was firm. Insistent. Like Esperanza's. Telling him he had to help defeat an army of vampires or the world as he knew it would be destroyed.

Memories of last night swam before his eyes. Of burning men and women. Of a man who only blinked when stabbed with his blade. Of being desperate enough to stab a man. A man who was no longer a man.

"You're trembling." Victoria's voice was no longer firm. It trembled with him.

"I-" He spotted it, lying beneath an old journal. He grasped it, pulled it free. He turned to face his wife, pulling one of her hands free and thrusting his find into her palm. "You must keep this on you always."

Her eyes widened as the diamonds gleamed at her. She tried to hand it back to him. "I can't keep this on me-"

Its value was priceless in more ways than one. For Diego, it only mattered that his mother owned it and used it. For thieves, the diamonds and precious metals were the find of a lifetime. For a historian, the history it had seen and been a part of was unbelievable. For a craftsman, the hours someone had put in creating such a work of art could only be held in awe.

Now he prayed it would keep his wife safe. He wrapped his hand around hers, keeping the rosary in her palm. "Keep it on you. Always."

"Diego, this is your mother's-"

"You will keep it with you. Always. Promise."

She opened her mouth to protest, then stopped and studied him. Whatever she saw made her nod. "I will. I promise. Now you need to get some sleep."

Sleep? He would never sleep again. "I have too much-"

"You are getting into our bed and getting some sleep, Diego." The firm, insistent voice was back.

He swayed. "I need-"

"Sleep," she said, gently pushing him towards their bed. She began unbuttoning his shirt. Part of him wanted to protest, but he lacked the strength to even speak. Heavy arms and clumsy fingers helped her finish undressing him. When she lifted the sheets, he climbed in without protest. And when she got in beside him and wrapped her arms around him, he allowed the darkness to overtake him.

Z Z Z

He sat up straight, gasping for breath in an airless world. "It's all right, Diego," a calming voice told him as cool fingers worked their way through his hair. "You were having a nightmare."

Nightmare? Yes, a nightmare. Of a world where the humans were cattle waiting to be picked as the night's dinner. Mendoza's screams as the vampires took him into the slaughterhouse from the field rang in his ears. The thought of eating beef made him nauseous.

He heard water being poured into a basin and saw his wife dipping in a cloth. She shuffled over to him and began wiping the sweat from his brow. "I was getting you something to eat and when I came back you were tossing and turning and yelling 'no'," she told him.

He closed his eyes, enjoying the coolness. Why had he been dreaming of vampires? His eyes sprang open as he remembered. He grasped Victoria's arm. "The rosary?"

She pointed to her waist, where the rosary was gently tucked into the waistband of her skirt. "I've received more than a few dark looks. A rosary wasn't meant to be worn, Diego."

"As long as it keeps you safe."

"Safe?" He waited for her to ask questions, but instead she stood from her perch on the edge of the bed and motioned for him to move to her side. "You need a dry place to eat," she said as she went to gather the tray.

"I should get up and join you for breakfast-"

"Breakfast was over hours ago," she said, walking around to her side of the bed. Diego did as he'd been instructed and scooted over.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to eat alone." Of course, it could be argued that their too silent breakfasts were worse than eating alone.

"Father joined me," she said, as she put the tray in his lap.

Alejandro had started eating an earlier breakfast months ago. Diego knew his father hated the tension between his son and his daughter-in-law. He also knew that Alejandro's disappointment in him had also played a part in forcing his father from a family breakfast. "He did?"

"Yes," she said with a smile, sitting carefully on the edge. "Although he also frowned when he saw the rosary." Diego had nothing to say so he took a sip of his chocolate. "Everything is apparently going as nature intended in the breeding shed," Victoria said, asking no questions again. "The bandits are to be tried next week. Mendoza has been given extra duties for telling Zorro that the coach had been attacked."

"How did DeSoto know?"

She smiled. "Mendoza let it slip."

Diego grinned. He knew Mendoza felt pride in being called 'friend' by Zorro. He probably even felt pride for being such a good friend to _Don_ Diego. However, Diego honestly believed he got more from their friendship than Mendoza did. He thought he would never understand how a man with such a large heart had become a soldier. For this army.

Then Diego reminded himself that Mendoza had not joined the _alcalde_'s army. He had joined the army of the Colonial Military Government, an army that had bravely defended the settlers with little reward. And Diego understood why Mendoza stayed, too. Los Angeles was his home, and he did what he could to protect the citizens from harm. He also protected the younger soldiers from the _alcalde_'s rage.

"Rumor also has that little Emilio has been given some severe punishments himself, including some chores that no little boy would enjoy." She took a sip from his glass of orange juice.

Diego moved his wrenched shoulder. "As long as he stays off cliffs for a while, I'm happy."

"You were hurt?"

Victoria noticed too much sometimes. "Just a little."

She nodded. "Raul came by earlier-" He tensed at the name and she stopped speaking. "You've never liked Raul. Why?"

A question. One he wanted to answer. To better understand. "He's a charming man."

Victoria laughed. "True. But there are many charming men in Los Angeles. And a charming man who is both efficient and honest has been a big help to me."

"I thought-" Diego took in a deep breath, admitting one of his deepest fears. "I thought you cared for him."

"I do," she said, frowning. "He's helped me-" She set down the orange juice on the tray. The liquid swayed back and forth from the force. "You thought a held a _tendre_ for him?"

"Yes." And had been in agony for it. "You are not the only one who thought they had not lived up to expectations."

She looked away. "Is that why you went to Tasia?"

The apple he had been eating turned in his stomach. "No, no, no. Victoria, Tasia is-" A vampire. He couldn't tell her that truth. "She's not what you think."

The pain in her eyes ripped through him. "Her lipstick was on you. Her perfume clung to your clothes."

"She kissed me." And almost turned him into a vampire, according to Esperanza.

Victoria shifted away from him, obviously knowing that his words were not a complete truth. "You were tempted."

To be able to see the future. To be able to experience what his limited knowledge of science said was impossible. He was still tempted. A small part of him yearned for the knowledge that Tasia and Esperanza held. The experiences they had been a part of and the history they had lived. "Yes," he admitted in spite of himself.

He looked at her shattered face and remembered Esperanza's words. She was his strength. She was the reason he kept fighting when the weight of responsibility seemed too much to bear. But he could never share the truths he learned last night with her. Could he?

"You've not asked me about last night."

"I'm waiting," she told him.

"Waiting?"

She bit her lip. "To see if you put the mask back on."

His first thought was of the black mask he wore all too often. Then he thought of her words about the mask of _Don_ Diego. She was waiting for him to act as if he had not a care in the world. Even knowing it could damage his marriage, he yearned to put that mask back on. It was comfortable. Safe. "I don't want to tell you about last night."

He felt her pulling away from him even though she physically remained still. "Because you don't trust me."

"Because I don't want you to be part of it."

"Am I not a part of you?"

Their gazes met, a battle was being fought, and Diego knew he was going to lose. "I don't want to put you in danger."

"When you first told me-"

He smiled. "You mean when you first forced me to reveal what you already knew."

Her smile held not even a hint of guilt. "After I first made you admit that you were Diego, you shared everything with me. You told me about Zorro's rides. Now, I find out from everyone but you."

He frowned. "I tell you."

"When?" she demanded, leaning forward.

"I told you about the cattle."

"In the tavern. Months ago."

"I never decided not to tell you," he said, wincing at his poor defense.

"You leave this home many times without even telling me that you are going to ride as Zorro," she said.

An accusation that was true. That decision he had made. "I don't want you in harm's way."

She threw her hands in the air. "What? You think I'm going to demand that you let me ride with you?"

"I told you about the Gomez gang and you came to the _pueblo_ to see it and nearly died!"

She blinked. "What?"

He reached for her blouse and pushed it aside. The scar had faded but his memories of the day had not. "This wound could have been much more serious."

"I know." She laid her hands over his. "But, Diego, I wasn't in the plaza because you told me you were going to ride. I was there because I needed to be at the tavern."

"You have no need to be at the tavern, Victoria. Your staff-"

"I had every need," she said with a firmness that surprised him. "I had to be there."

"Raul was doing a great job. You had said so just the night before, Victoria."

"Yes, he was doing a great job. I wasn't there to handle a problem. I was there because at the tavern I felt competent."

"Victoria, you are the most competent person I know."

The sheen of tears in her eyes shocked him. "I didn't feel it that day."

"Why?"

Her jaw dropped open, and he wondered again what he had missed in his wife's life. He took great pride in being observant in his science. "Our dinner party."

Diego remembered. It had been her first time serving as the de la Vega hostess since their marriage. "Our dinner party was perfect."

"Diego, you know what problems-"

He moved his hand from her old wound to her face. His thumb caressed her cheek. "Problems that our guests never suspected."

"_Doña_ Abegail-"

"Victoria," he said, starting to understand how much he had failed her. "Anything she said or hinted was pure conjecture on her part. She was aiming to hurt you."

"So much went wrong, Diego," she said, leaning against his hand.

"And so much went right. Victoria, your selection of guests was perfect. Except for _Doña_ Abegail." She smiled slightly, and he felt warmed by it. "The conversation never stalled once. It was interesting. I think everyone had a good time. Even _Doña_ Abegail."

Leaning over he pushed the tray over to the other edge and scooted towards the middle of the bed. He held out his hand and Victoria took it, letting him guide her into their bed. Sinking down, he wrapped his arms around her waist and settled his head on her round stomach. His child greeted him with a tiny jab.

"I'm sorry."

Victoria stopped stroking his hair for a moment. "Why?"

"Because I failed you. Because my father warned me that I would need to protect you from the vipers, and I didn't," he admitted.

"It's not all your fault," she murmured. "I never told you what was happening."

"Why?"

She sighed and shifted her body to get more comfortable. "I wasn't used to confiding in you."

He leaned on his arm, looking up at her face. "I know that Zorro never had time for confidences, but I thought you were used to talking to your friend Diego."

"About most things, yes," she said. "But there was a lot hid from him, too."

"You never told him about your engagement." Diego had been torn then between the joy of her loyalty to Zorro and the knowledge that she kept secrets from Diego.

"And I never told him about the whispers. Or those that were willing to speak above a whisper."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

She remained silent for several minutes. Finally, she sighed. "A woman who gallivants openly with an outlaw has to hear certain opinions of herself expressed."

The nausea was back. "People dared to insult you."

Her smile was sad. "Most only did it behind their hands as I walked past. Some dared to say it openly."

"It?"

"Zorro's whore."

Rage tore through him. "Who dared to call you that name?"

She grasped his shoulders and made him lie back down beside her. His ragged breathing filled the air as she calmly stroked his chest. "Who?" he demanded.

"I'm not going to tell you. Ever," she said.

"Victoria-"

"You'll be happy to know that Mendoza and a few other friends took care of it. Always." The grin on her face told him that the revenge had been sweet.

He had been causing her pain for years. "I should've been the one to defend you. Why did you never tell Diego?"

"At first, because I didn't want him to tell _Don_ Alejandro."

He tried to relax. "You knew my father would defend you."

"Yes," she said. "And because I didn't want him to look down on me."

"Victoria-"

"A part of me, some crazy part of me, thought maybe I deserved it. Maybe some part of me wanted to fight my own battles."

Leaning his forehead against hers, he said, "And later? Why did not tell me later?"

"Because I didn't want Diego looking down on me either. And because I knew he would protect me, perhaps even more than his father."

His mind was supplying a thousand ways he could get revenge against the unknown people. He was already making plans to talk to Mendoza to learn who they were and what had been done to them. "After you knew I was Zorro?"

She giggled. "No, the rumors had stopped by then. Too old to be interesting. And too many people adored Zorro for anyone to offer an insult to his lady."

Pulling away slightly, he stared into her eyes. "You trusted me to protect you? Boring Diego?"

"Protective Diego. Loving, caring Diego. Who had as much power as his father and never overtly used it. Who managed to always make people think that their actions were their own ideas instead of ideas planted by him." She smiled at his surprise and rubbed her hand against his stubble. "I told you once before I was always watching, even when I wasn't always aware of why."

"I'm glad you watched."

"I'm sorry I didn't watch close enough," she admitted. It was an apology she had given a long time ago, when she had forced her best friend to admit he was the man who loved her from behind a black mask.

Her gentle stroking was lulling him to sleep. He yawned. "I should get up; there is much to do."

"You should rest," she said. His aching muscles agreed with the wise woman. A few more minutes of rest could be beneficial. So Diego again let sleep overtake him.

Z Z Z

"Ah, Victoria! Have you seen Diego?"

His daughter-in-law's lips curved into a slow, satisfied grin. "He's still asleep, Father."

Alejandro blinked. "Asleep? At this hour."

"He needs to rest, Father."

He remembered her earlier words. "Is he not feeling better? Perhaps we should send for Doctor Hernandez."

Victoria closed her book and rubbed her belly. "He needs rest. He hasn't slept well for some time."

"No," Alejandro agreed. "He hasn't." He didn't say the words that came to mind. He ignored them. Or tried to. He wanted to believe his son would honor his marriage vows. He wanted to believe that Diego was not worn out from spending too many nights in another woman's bed.

"He's not." Victoria looked at him without blinking.

"I beg your pardon."

"Your thoughts. I could read them on your face. Diego is not in Tasia's bed," she said.

Alejandro would rather be punched in the stomach than have this conversation. "Victoria, I would never-"

"Talk to me about your fears?" She sighed. "Seems to be a de la Vega trait. One I share."

He took a step further into the sun drenched library. "Victoria?"

Frowning, she rubbed her shoulder. "Did you know how upset Diego was about this?"

He remembered the pale skin, the way Diego had been unable to stand still as the doctor examined her. The way he disappeared after she fell into a drugged sleep. And yet somehow until his son's startling revelation, he had never thought about Diego's response, simply assigning him the role of jealous husband without ever wondering if Diego wanted that role. "I do now."

"It was nothing." Her voice spoke of confusion, awe, and humility.

The blood had appeared to pour from her shoulder after the dagger had hit and then bounced from her flesh. Hernandez commented that such a small wound shouldn't produce so much blood but that they often did. Raul had immediately carried her into the tavern as Zorro disappeared from the plaza. The Ortega brothers, some of Victoria's best customers, had sat on the man who had harmed her in his effort to hurt the masked bandit that had caught him. Alejandro knew Zorro's guilt would be huge, but he never had the chance to talk to the young man about it.

Then, he had watched his son's marriage disintegrate and he forgot all about Zorro's guilt. Could the two be entwined? A tiny voice, one that had been growing louder since he had watched his son defeat his twin in the garden, issued another cry, insisted that his son was the masked man. Long habit forced the thought from his mind. "The blood scared me."

"Seeing that blade head towards his heart scared me," she admitted.

Alejandro remained unsure what to say. The last few days had opened his eyes to the possibility of love between Diego and Victoria, but Zorro had been Victoria's first love, and first loves always died hard. If they truly died. "I thought Diego was angry because you were injured protecting the man you used to love."

She studied him and then nodded. "I never thought about how quiet we all were when I returned. I had more wounds than just this-" she lifted her shoulder "-to deal with, and I never thought about Diego's wounds from that day. Or yours."

Alejandro had held her down while Hernandez sowed her flesh together. When Hernandez had finished and smiled, Alejandro had finally breathed again. "Victoria, I was glad that you weren't seriously injured. A day in bed to keep your shoulder still and a few stitches could have been much worse."

"_Doña_ Abegail helped me dress the next day."

He had thought Diego had helped her, never imagining that Diego's feelings for Victoria ran so deeply. Fear could keep any man away from the woman he loved when she was in pain. "She has always made herself available to be where she can gossip."

Victoria glanced out the window. She inhaled deeply and then turned to look at him again. "She said she could tell you and Diego were ashamed of my actions."

Alejandro jaw throbbed. "What?"

She smiled and laughed. "I actually believed her."

He sank down onto a knee before her. "You believed I was ashamed of you."

Another deep breath. "I could tell you were not pleased on our wedding day. I knew you loved me, as a friend, as the daughter of a friend. But that's not the same as being the woman from a lower class that married your son."

Had he never spoken to her as he had Diego? Had he never shared his doubts about their marriage? Class had played no role in his concerns. He wondered if Victoria could have settled some of those doubts if he had bothered to share them before the wedding. "I was afraid for you. And Diego. He was too mild to keep you interested. And your passions would scare him. Or so I thought."

Her laughter was freer than it had been in some time. Maybe she was right. Maybe the de la Vegas needed to learn to ask questions and to listen to the answers. "I will probably surprise you with my answer."

"Oh," he said, noticing a soft glow about her.

She leaned forward—or tried to lean forward. His grandson got in the way. "Besides being the most exciting man I've ever known. He's also the most passionate."

He's Zorro, the little voice insisted. "Diego? Passionate?"

"It took me years to notice. Have you never seen how he is? How he gives his whole heart? His poetry. His science. This _pueblo_. You. Felipe. Me. If he loves, he loves without reservation." She looked out the window again and shook her head. "I forgot that somehow."

At least she had noticed. Had he always been blind? Or had it only begun after Diego returned from University? And the blindness—had it been accidental or intentional? The small voice demanded to know if having his suspicion confirmed would be so devastating.

"Victoria? How passionate is my son?" He blushed at the look she gave him. "I mean about this _pueblo_." The understanding in her eyes confirmed that long-denied belief. If he could only accept it.

"You need to ask him," was the only reply she would give him.

Z Z Z


	9. Chapter 9

"Gone?"

Robert's fingers trembled but he continued to brush her hair. "Yes, Ma'am. When I went there earlier, the cave was empty."

Miguel would never abandon her. Never. Out them all, he would be the one to remain. Something had happened.

"Did you see anything?"

"There were several animal carcasses outside the cave. I burned them." He began sliding pins into her hair. "But I saw no other sign that they had been there."

"Something isn't right," she said.

"What's wrong, my love?" Innocenzio asked, stepping into her bedroom. She could see him in the corner of her eye. His gray suit clung to his chiseled body. His hair ruffled but still stylish. And he was hers.

"Miguel and the group with him have vanished."

"Vanished?" Innocenzio walked to her side and sank down onto one knee. "You think they have decided to not join you in your fight?"

"No," she said. "Miguel wants it even more than me. He hates how we have to hide. How we have to be careful while eating our food."

Innocenzio nodded. The first time he bit down on a live creature's neck, he gagged. She held the rabbit to his mouth forcing him to drink, to fulfill a hunger he didn't understand. To her surprise after only a few seconds, he had taken it from her hands and drank on his own. Then, he kissed her.

"What could have happened to them?"

She stroked his cheek, enjoying the feeling of his beard on her skin. "I do not know. But I need you to go and see if you can find any clues."

He took her hand and kissed it. "He was staying at the cave on _Don _Sebastian's land? We searched for the Fox there when he first appeared."

He still worried about Zorro. "Innocenzio, the past is the past."

"I'm not worried about the past." He leaned down in front of her, resting his palm against her heart. "My concern is for you."

"You wish humans to be locked in pastures waiting for you to pick your dinner, too?" she teased, waiving Robert away. He had finished styling her hair.

"I couldn't care less." Her lover shrugged. "I'll eat what I want to eat and when I want to eat it. I can be careful, and I can play on the humans' fears. I don't care who rules the world. I've come to realize in the last few years that ruling the world is not as pleasant as wanting it. But if you want it, I will do everything to help you get it."

She stood, forcing him to take a step back. "You do not wish to rule by my side."

He stepped forward, wrapping one arm around her. "I just want to be by your side."

The sentiment should sicken her. No one, not even the vampire who had declared her future to be that of a ruler, had ever cared for her. The idea left her unsettled.

"I am going to win the battle."

"Please, don't underestimate Zorro. His drive for justice is extraordinary. You may have to kill him," Innocenzio said.

Ah, here was an emotion she understood. "Jealous?"

His eyes dropped away from hers, and she recognized the signs. She had seen it often enough since they came to Los Angeles. Memories of his past were playing in his mind. She hated it. Hated the life he had led without her.

"No, I'm not," he said, sounding surprised. "Diego de la Vega has nothing I want. Now." He returned his focus to her. "I just want you safe. And I know Zorro is anything but safe to our kind."

"Vampires?"

Innocenzio shook his head. "No. To those of us who don't give a damn about justice."

Z Z Z

"You're whistling."

Diego smiled at the intrusion. "It's a new piece from Europe. I played it on the piano after dinner."

Earlier, Victoria had sat by his side turning the pages as his father had leaned back in his chair, his eyes closed, enjoying the music. Months had passed since they had spent an evening so. After a wonderful dinner, the time spent together had been a perfecting ending of a wonderful day.

"You and Victoria are staring to work out your problems." There was no question in her voice.

"Yes, we are," Diego said, carefully making a notation in his notebook before replacing a test tube. He picked up another and made another notation. If not for this experiment, he would not be in the caves yet. He would have waited for Victoria to get in bed and fall asleep before going out to hunt for vampires.

The hysteria of last night had evaporated, and even after seeing what he had seen, a part of him resisted the facts. It was a nightmare. It was a carefully orchestrated act. Hallucinations from eating a bad piece of meat perhaps. Vampires could not exist.

But they did.

"Did you tell her about us?"

He almost dropped the test tube. "Us?"

She grinned. "Vampire us. Not you and me us."

"Oh. No," he admitted, looking anywhere but in her eyes. The desire remained, but it was muted, distant. And he was beginning to understand what she meant when she told him it was not true lust. She remained more of a puzzle he wanted to solve than a woman he wanted in his bed.

"You should."

Last night, before talking to Victoria, before feeling the strength just being in her arms gave him, he would have argued violently against the idea. "Perhaps. But I want to protect her."

Esperanza looked towards the back of the cave and grinned. "And she wants to protect you. And will."

Diego turned, following her gaze and flinched when he saw his wife holding a musket trained on his guest. He took a step forward. "Victoria, put the gun down."

His wife never looked at him. "No."

"Have you ever shot anyone, Victoria?" Esperanza's amusement echoed off the walls. "Messy business."

"Father taught me how to use this-" she patted the gun stock "-when I took over the tavern. I am a very good shot." Victoria's smile made Diego shiver. "And I'm a bar maid; I know how to clean up messes."

"Father taught you how to shoot?"

She continued to focus her attention on Esperanza, but she answered his question. "I was a woman alone in a _pueblo_ with little security when I took over the tavern. He taught me how to shoot. And he taught me how to fight dirty," she said, a warning to their guest.

Diego looked at the very pregnant figure of his wife holding a musket steady at a woman she considered a threat. To him. And he fell even more in love with her.

Z Z Z

Esperanza admiration for Victoria increased. Only a short time ago, she had felt the usual contempt for Victoria. She let her lazy good-for-nothing cheating husband abuse her, and she had given her heart to a man who had only played with it. In spite of that contempt, she had liked her. Had sensed the passion and dedication and loyalty this woman possessed.

That passion, dedication and loyalty had led her to grab a musket and to aim it at Esperanza. She had to admire the sheer grit the woman possessed. "I'm not going to hurt him."

Victoria continued to hold the gun steady. "You said you were going to kill him."

Esperanza briefly considered lying. Knew it would do her no good. "I had planned on it. But now I don't think he's the problem."

"The problem?"

"Vampires." Diego looked as startled by what he said as she felt.

His wife blinked and actually glanced in his direction. "Vampires?"

"Vampires," Esperanza said with a grin. "Nasty creatures. Real pains in the neck."

Victoria sighed but continued to hold the musket steady. "You are a vampire hunter."

"Oh, no," Esperanza said, shaking her head. "I think they are even more of a pain in the neck. Assumes every vampire is evil, and most of the time the prey they kill are ordinary people. Very few of us have actually been killed by humans."

The gun barrel lowered slightly. "Us?"

She grinned, letting her teeth show. "Us."

Victoria looked to Diego for confirmation. The fact he said nothing seemed to be enough for her. She carefully lowered the gun. Her husband jumped forward and took it from her hands. She didn't spare him a glance. "I will not let you hurt him."

"I don't want to. Not anymore. But I can't guarantee he won't be hurt."

Setting her jaw, Victoria waddled forward and sat down at his desk. Her nose twisted at the smell, and Esperanza hid a smile. Her own nose had protested earlier when she stepped into the cave. Victoria looked at her and Diego. "What do we need to do?"

"We?" Diego was already shaking his head.

"We," his wife said firmly. "I let you hide away from me. I can't stop you from trying, but I've realized that I chased you for ten years, Diego. I can keep chasing you until you're done running."

He blinked. Esperanza knew she was missing huge chunks of conversation that was being silently between the two. To her surprise, Diego nodded and sat down next to his wife. He took her hand in his and kissed it briefly before setting it back on the table. Both de la Vegas looked at her. "What do we need to do?"

Esperanza wished she had an answer to give him.

Z Z Z

"We shall have to begin training soon," Tasia said to the vampires she considered her generals. They were strong, fast, and had the ability to lead. Vampires, as a rule, didn't travel in packs. Petty jealousies and other unimportant issues usually split most groups that had tried. Perhaps it was nature's way of protecting the food sources.

Modestus leaned back in his chair and crossed his ankles. Looking at him, no one would guess what a brilliant fighter he was. The length of his limbs made him appear clumsy, and his natural tallness made him look lean and weak. The face stuck with the youthfulness of the day he was turned made the humans think of a kind little brother. Tasia knew better. The few battles that they had over the years had been bloody and painful. She needed him, and she hated that fact.

Studying her, he swirled his wine in his glass. "Where's Miguel?"

She barely kept herself from reacting. She would not lose. Not now.

"He's not here."

He grinned. "I noticed. Why? He's always been your biggest supporter. Or at least the most desperate for easy hunting," he sneered, his lip curling. Modestus had never had human servants do his hunting for him. He considered it weak, foolish. Tasia thought he was probably correct.

"He is on an assignment." Tasia craned her neck to see Innocenzio walking into the room. Tension crackled in his eyes, but she doubted anyone else in the room noticed. He strolled into the room as if he owned it, took a glass of wine from the credenza, and sat down next to her. "My dear," he said, taking her hand in his and gently kissing it.

"An assignment? Doing what?" Modestus demanded.

Innocenzio looked at her. "Is it any of his business, my dear?"

She grinned at him. "No, it is not."

He nodded. "I'm afraid you have no reason to know, Modestus."

Any hint of ease disappeared. Modestus sat up straight in his chair, his eyes flashing. "I'm not Tasia's puppy like you. I'm only in this fight to get what I want. I don't care what Tasia wants."

"We all want to win, whatever the reason." Innocenzio said, casually taking a sip of his wine. "Nice. Robert made an excellent choice. I'll make sure I tell him."

"Where is Miguel?"

Innocenzio looked bored. "Are you going to tell him, my dear?"

She took his wine glass from him and took a sip. The sound of Modestus teeth grinding made her smile. "You can."

Innocenzio nodded at her before slowly turning his attention back to the vampire-filled room. "He's taking care of a problem for us."

The tension in the room became stifling. Tasia set the glass down before she broke it in her fist. Would all of her plans collapse around her for daring to trust?

Modestus stood. "Problem? There's a problem."

Innocenzio laughed. "Of course there's a problem."

"Really? What problem would that be?"

Her lover's voice turned mocking. "The Dark One. Have you all forgotten the prophecies that brought us together?"

"The Destroyer." Emilia spoke. The tiny-framed lady lacked in physical strength compared to some in the room. However, she had managed to command a group of vampires for over a century by the force of her will and her charm.

"Yes, the Destroyer," Innocenzio murmured.

"You mock him," Modestus said.

Innocenzio dusted some imaginary lint from his cuffs. "He's unworthy of anything else."

Modestus' eyes met hers and demanded answers. "You know who he is?"

Tasia turned to look at Innocenzio. He had found a way to both answer a question that could have created a mutiny in her needed army, and he had found a way to use that answer to distract the generals from their other questions. Looking in his eyes, she trusted him. Trusted him as she had trusted no other.

"Oh, yes," she answered, finally turning her attention back to the lady sitting across from her. "I know exactly who the Dark One is."

"He's a problem?"

"More of a nuisance," Innocenzio answered for her. She smiled her appreciation.

"He is being handled."

The vampires in the room looked at her with an appreciation she had never seen. She basked in it and knew that, with the help of the man by her side, she would soon rule the world.

Z Z Z

"What are you thinking?"

Diego turned his attention from his experiment to his wife. "I'm debating if I should dismantle this or not."

"Dismantle it?" she said. She took a step towards him. Noticing that her hand was pressed against her lower back, he reached around her and began rubbing it. She sighed and relaxed into his arms.

"Science can be so dangerous."

She leaned back to look up at him. "Dangerous?"

"Esperanza didn't explain the vampires to you."

Victoria shook her head and leaned forward. "No, she didn't."

"And you didn't ask. A single question."

"You believed," she said into his shoulder. "That was good enough for me."

"Even after everything?" He had failed her in too many ways.

"Maybe because of everything. Maybe because I sat in our library today reading my journals and noticed so many things about you, about me, about Felipe, and about Father that I never noticed before."

He guided her over to the chair and sat down across from her. Drawing her legs into his lap, he began rubbing them as if she was one of their champion horses. The tiny shudder through her body told him she appreciated the gesture. Tornado snorted his displeasure. "I'll rub you down later, old boy. After Victoria has gone to sleep."

The muscles beneath his fingers tensed. "You are riding tonight."

"Only to give Tornado exercise," he said.

She nodded but her earlier relaxation was only a memory. Glancing at the bubbling test tubs, she asked, "So why are you suddenly thinking that science is dangerous?"

He started to tell her that she needed to be in bed, that the little one and she needed rest, but he saw the yearning in her eyes, the yearning to understand him, to connect with him. He understood that yearning. He wanted to connect with her, too.

Fighting years of self-training, years of fear, he told her what he knew. "Esperanza says vampires were created by science."

Victoria's grin was brief but brilliant. She settled more into her chair. "Science? Diego, I know you have done some amazing feats with science, but-"

"Have you ever heard of Atlantis?"

She giggled. "Don't you remember? You told me about it."

"I did?"

"I was very young. So were you. Your tutor had just introduced you to Plato's works. You found the idea of a lost island fascinating. And you wanted to share it. Even with the tomboyish little girl of your father's friend."

Vague memories played through his mind. He could remember reading Plato for the first time. And, if he really concentrated, he thought he could remember talking to Victoria about it. "I think I remember. We were sitting under the tree in the back of the tavern."

"Yes, we were."

He paused in his ministrations. "Why do you remember?"

"Little tomboyish girls can have tendres for cute older boys."

He grinned. "Really?"

"Really," she replied. "I decided as a very young girl I was going to marry you."

"And you did."

"And I did," she said with pride.

He glanced at his watch and realized it was time to take some more readings. The last one of the day. He carefully placed her feet on the stool where he had been sitting. Gathering his notes, he walked around the table and began observing the changes in his mixtures.

"Esperanza said that scientists on Atlantis wanted to conquer death, so they studied the human body until they could tell if a child would have a disease before they were born."

"Diego, you know-" She stopped and he saw the realization hit her that he was talking about vampires. "I think I liked Old Man Rios' version better."

Making careful note of the color change in the first test tube, he laughed. "Rios: I'd forgotten about him."

He had loved his stories as a child. Enjoyed the chill that crawled up his spine at the old man's words. He spoke of evil creatures roaming the world and of the brave men who defeated them. While his brain had argued that those beings could not possibly exist, his heart had pounded in terror at the chance that _Senor_ Rios' stories, told with such conviction, were true.

Diego had been one of the last to hear him share his tales. A brilliant story teller, he had drowned himself in alcohol until it finally won the battle. A night of hard drinking had led him into tripping over a tree branch and into a swollen creek. His drinking buddy had been unable to save him.

Now that Diego knew the truth about vampires, he wondered if perhaps Rios had known that truth. If the alcohol had been his way of hiding from memories that were destroying him.

"A lot of people have been talking about him at the tavern," Victoria said. "I've enjoyed hearing some of them again. I always had to hide and strain to hear him telling his stories. Mother thought they would keep me awake all night. Ramôn was the one that stayed up all night, stiff as a board in his bed, so sure that something was coming to get him in the night."

"All the whispers of vampires reminded everyone of him," he said. Those whispers had frustrated him earlier, and now he knew them to be accurate.

"Yes," she said. He knew she understood where his thoughts were. "They are real, Diego."

"Yes," he said. "Esperanza said that they found some part of the human body that they could manipulate, change. Even eye color could be changed in a child before it was born. Then they discovered what controlled aging, and changed it, but after the change, they noticed that food didn't satisfy hunger anymore. Their bodies required them to drink others' blood to replenish their own."

Victoria thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Rios said they were demons. From hell. Who preyed on humans."

Diego almost dropped the last test tube when he remembered the feeding frenzy he had witnessed. He shuddered, unable to hide his revulsion. "They are from hell."

Victoria began to move her feet to the ground. "You think Esperanza is lying?"

"No," he admitted, blowing out the candles that had been heating the tubes. "I think that just because they were made by science doesn't mean they aren't damned."

He watched as she carefully scooted herself to the edge of the chair and then used the arms to push herself up. After placing the chemicals where he could easily drain them tomorrow, he walked over to his wife and wrapped his arms around her.

"That's why you are thinking about stopping your experiments?" she said, hugging him tightly to her.

"Science can create such evil."

"Science doesn't create good. Or evil. Diego, the way people use it creates evil or good. You have used your science to save this _pueblo_ and a good number of people." She leaned forward and kissed him. A gentle kiss. One that made his toes curl. "And I'm betting your science will save us again."

Z Z Z

Esperanza followed the scent. Literally. The mass of rotting animal carcasses had attracted her notice earlier. She knew what the scent meant. Another group of vampires. Gathered together as vampires never did.

On the ridge, she looked down at the group of vampires and watched as Emelia arrived and made her demands. A legend among vampires, Emelia had managed to keep several vampires working together for centuries. Somehow she had managed to overcome the natural tendency vampires had for stabbing each other in the back.

Her fingers itched to grasp her sword, but she was outnumbered. She would need Diego's help. How many groups did Tasia have? The number in the last cave had impressed Esperanza more than she wanted to admit. Counting this group, she felt the beginnings of fear. Maybe even with the Dark One's help, she couldn't win. The task was bigger than her.

Tomorrow night she would lead her partner here and they would fight side by side. She hoped that whatever God Diego believed in was on their side.

Z Z Z

"What happened to Miguel?"

Innocenzio gathered her hand in his and walked out into the garden. The sounds of horse hooves were disappearing in the distance. Their guests had left in a more agreeable mood. "I believe they are dead."

Her hand clutched at his. "Dead?"

"There was a lot of ash."

Tasia stared out at the night sky, watching the moon sink away from her. "Robert burned the corpses of their dinner."

"Too much ash was inside the cavern. I think someone burned them." Innocenzio's words were calm. Tasia struggled to maintain her own sense of calm.

"There were over-"

"I know."

She stopped walking. "You think Diego did it."

"I don't know."

He continued to surprise her. "You don't know."

"No, I don't. He's a man of science. He's not one to believe in vampires and ghosts and goblins and all that can go bump in the night," Innocenzio admitted. "And he has a great passion for life."

She sank down on a bench, and looked up at her lover. His eyes remained on hers as he talked about his past. Whatever ghosts used to haunt when his memories were blurs at best seemed to have left him. "I thought he helped kill you, Innocenzio."

"No." He laughed, and she felt her blood sing at the sound. "It was my foolishness that killed me. I remembered that earlier. He, however, has probably taken at least part of the blame. Eaten away with guilt. I love it."

"You really do not like him."

"No, I hate him," Innocenzio said with a shrug. "But I will endure him if it will get you what you want."

"But you still recommend caution."

"He's like playing in the sun, Tasia. It's fun. Makes the blood sing. But we shouldn't be surprised if he burns us."

Z Z Z

"Father just threw his hands in the air and walked away. I don't think he knew what to do."

Victoria laughed. "Did your mother scold you?"

"She was too busy laughing," Diego replied. "I could have burned the entire _hacienda_ to the ground."

Alejandro remained hidden in the shadows. Victoria and Diego were in the library. She was in the chair where she usually rested in the afternoons. In front of her, instead of the usual footstool, Diego sat. His head lay in what remained of her lap. Her fingers were playing with his hair, and Alejandro's heart nearly burst from the relaxed happiness he saw on both their faces.

Even in the early days of the marriage, they had lacked this ease between them. Happiness had shined but neither had acted as if they felt that free. They had been careful. So careful with each other.

Victoria's hair was free from the tight bun. He saw her toes peeking out from beneath her skirt. Diego's shirt was partially unbuttoned and even his boots were missing. Alejandro's smile was spontaneous and free.

Then he recalled why he was standing here. What news he had heard in the plaza. Raul had told him personally. Raul's face had been tight and pinched looking. His hair looked as if he had forgotten to comb it when he awoke, and his shirt had been tucked in at a crooked angle.

Still, seeing how happy they were, Alejandro loathed telling them. They could learn of it later. But he wanted them to be safe, careful, if they left the _hacienda_, and if Diego was-Well, Diego might need to know.

Stepping forward, he cleared his throat, and to his surprise, Victoria and Diego did not rush to look proper. Diego's head remained in Victoria's lap and she remained relaxing in her chair. The smile both gave him was their only acknowledgment of his presence.

"Diego, Victoria-"

"Good afternoon, Father." Diego yawned. "We were about to go take an afternoon siesta."

The dark circles that had been under both sets of eyes were starting to disappear. Another relief to an old man awaiting the birth of his grandchild. Now if they could only arrive at a solution for the mysterious illness striking their _pueblo_.

The illness or the twisted human. He really didn't want to believe humans were capable of such evil, but he knew it was possible. "I just came from the tavern."

"Business should be good today," Victoria said with an unconcerned air. "It is market day."

"There were only a few people there," he admitted. Diego sat up, his manner reminding Alejandro of an animal on a hunt. Each movement was precise, done for a reason. His eyes studied Alejandro for clues.

"What's happened?" Victoria was the one that voiced the question.

"Another death."

"I thought everyone was getting used to it," Diego sighed, his muscles relaxing.

"They were. The death of the cattle frightened them, but the numbers have remained low and random."

Diego again looked like he was preparing for a hunt. Or perhaps he was an animal aware of a closing in predator. "It wasn't a cow this time."

"No," Alejandro told him, wishing he could keep the information to himself. "_Don_ Javier was found this morning out in his lower pasture."

"Poor _Doña_ Ivette," his daughter-in-law gasped, showing compassion for someone who had showed her none. "She must be devastated. But what caused the panic?"

"He had two tiny holes-" Alejandro pointed to his throat. "And his family insisted that Doctor Hernandez examine him. He believes Javier was drained of blood as well."

Diego and Victoria stared at each other, and Alejandro was left with the feeling that they knew far more about what was happening than he did. Part of him wanted to demand answers. A bigger part of him was afraid. "They are burying his body as we speak."

"No funeral?"

"They're packing to leave. As soon as his remains are placed in the ground, they will be gone." Alejandro had briefly considered trying to talk to them, trying to make them see reason. He wanted them to understand that their reckless abandonment of Los Angeles might create alarm, an unnecessary panic. But thinking about _Don_ Javier, he didn't know if the panic was unnecessary.

"Thank you for telling us, Father," Victoria said, carefully edging her way out of her chair. "We need to go lay down, Diego."

His son blinked. "I need-"

"To get rest," his wife insisted, standing and offering her hand. "You said it yourself. Rest helps the mind and body work."

Diego's smile was weak, but he nodded his agreement. He stood and took her hand. "We will see you at dinner, Father."

Alejandro watched them go. A small shiver overtook him, and he went to stand by the fire. Unfortunately, its flames failed to warm him.

Z Z Z


	10. Chapter 10

Diego continued to stare at the extinguished candles. Last night's confusion had been replaced by yet more frustration and despair. He closed his eyes and remembered the comfortable bed he had left earlier. Victoria's warm body had been pressed against his side. She had smiled when he rubbed her belly, greeting their child.

She wanted a son. Alejandro also wanted it to be a boy. However, Diego wanted a girl, a beautiful girl with her mother's smile. And her daring. He wanted to spoil her while Victoria fused at him. His little girl would not have to work her hands down to the bone like her mother. Ever.

He heard her enter his cave. This time. "One of them has murdered a man."

"I heard."

"It doesn't surprise you." He gathered the remains of last night's experiment and walked over to where he discarded his chemicals.

"Diego, I told you the first time I met you that I was trying to save the world."

He turned to stare at her. "You were using hyperbole."

"No, I wasn't," she said, walking further into the candlelight.

Denial was his first instinct. "Then why did we spend last night talking about vampires instead of fighting them?"

She laughed. "Because to fight what you do not understand is to lose. You came close to losing the two different battles you've had with vampires. In fact, you would have died the night I fought you if I hadn't made the last-second decision not to kill you."

He ran a hand through his hair. "So Tasia is gathering an army in Los Angeles? Is that why they are suddenly staying in caves around here?"

"Yes," she admitted. "Humans have been protected from us for a long time."

He sat the tray of test tubes down. "What's protected us?"

"Two things. One is that vampires are naturally solitary creatures to a certain extent. A pair that travels together is odd. A group is practically unheard of. We have a habit of being our own worst enemy, if that makes sense to you."

He studied her for a moment and then nodded. "I think it does. What is the second?"

"The ancients."

"The ancients?"

"There is a group of older vampires. Some members of this group are well known to all of us. Others are only known to the ancients themselves. Their roles are quiet. No one knows how old they are, but we all know that they are powerful. Rumor has it that they know more about the experiments that created vampires all those years ago."

She laughed. "Some even say that the ancients are themselves the scientists that discovered how to create us."

"You don't believe it?"

"Everything in life is relative. It's hard for you, a man who only has a few decades to live, to believe that my kind can live centuries. And it's difficult for my kind to believe that there are those that can live for 10,000 years."

Ten thousand years. The tools that had been discovered. The civilizations that had risen and fallen. Diego thought of it all. He had turned down the chance to possibly see 10,000 years of human history. Yet he felt nothing but relief. Civilizations rising and falling he could read about; he wanted to enjoy watching his son or daughter grow.

"The ancients have protected us? Why?"

She shrugged and leaned against a rock wall. Tornado snorted and backed away from her. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"I do not ever try to comprehend the mind of an ancient. I tried once and failed miserably."

The pain in her voice told him that her efforts had been personal. Whatever ancient she had tried to understand had been important to her. Her eyes met his and then she shook her head. "Yes, he was important."

He flinched. "Do vampires read minds?"

"No, but your thoughts were written plainly on your face." She rubbed her neck, stroked it gently. "An ancient changed me. He took me away from the men who used my mother and tried to use me. He allowed me to become an adult before he changed me. He showed me that men could be gentle, caring, and then he showed me that even a gentle, caring man can hurt you."

He knew to speak these words cost her. "Why are telling me this?"

She squatted down beside him. "Because I know what I have to ask of you."

"Ask of me?"

"Diego, a prophecy was written years ago. Even as far as prophecies go, it is vague and confusing."

He lifted an eyebrow. "A vague and confusing prophecy?"

She leaned forward, as if sharing a secret. "I know, it describes all prophecies. But this one is worse. And it was ripped into pieces centuries ago. Most of what is known about it is actually rumor. Very little fact."

Staring at her, he wanted to argue that prophecies were fantasy. But then so were vampires. "What makes the prophecy so special?"

"It's rumored that the Ancients-the true Ancients-of Atlantis wrote it before their civilization fell," she admitted. "My kind are fascinated by it because it speaks of vampires ruling the world."

"Vampires ruling the world." He shuddered as he remembered his nightmare. Mendoza, Victoria, his friends all treated as cattle for a vampire master.

"It won't be pretty place if it happens."

"Why me? Why come to me? Why did you believe you needed to kill me? Why ask for my help?" His voice trembled. From passion. From frustration. From fear.

Standing, she walked over to where Zorro's clothes hung. She lifted the mask. "Part of the prophecy that is known is the part that talks of a Dark One, a destroyer. What he destroys no one knows, although vampires being vampires, many assumed he would help destroy the human race. It was an assumption I was warned against, but I kept it even as I arrived in Los Angeles and prepared for the war."

Diego felt ill. "War?"

"War. She will try to kill the Ancients. The known ones first, of course. She will need an army, and she will need a permanent base. Los Angeles fits her requirements. Aldrick-the Ancient who transformed me-told me that many of the known Ancients are in the New World and have been since your birth."

Z Z Z

The horror on his face hurt her. Amazing how she had gone from hating him to be protective of him. He was strong, but the burden he carried was large, and she was only adding to it.

"My birth?" The strength of his voice impressed her.

"Your birth. They felt when you were born. One found you as a baby and followed you here."

Revulsion crossed his features. "You have been watching me since I was born?"

"Not me," she said. "I thought you were a legend, and an unimportant one at that."

"How do-" Diego blinked and hid his face from her. He began to fiddle with the glass test tubes. He opened one and Esperanza had to clutch at the table to keep from falling. The scent burned through her nose, and her stomach twirled and twisted.

Diego's face swayed in front of her. He walked closer and the scent become more repulsive. "Esperanza, are you all right?"

Gasping, she pointed at his hand. He looked down, confused. He started to ask her a question, but obviously saw something on her face that stopped him. He plugged the cork back into the test tube. And the scent slowly started to leave the cave.

Diego sat it down on the table and helped her to a chair. "Are you all right?"

"What-" she croaked, "is that?"

"It's a simple solution of-" Diego looked at her. "It's harmless."

"To you," she said. "But it wasn't to me. My stomach hates its supper."

"It made you nauseous?

"Yes," she realized. "Nauseous. That is the term for it. I haven't felt it since I was turned."

She picked up the tube and stared at it. "A simple solution? You can make more?" He nodded. "We'll need more. To help us win the war."

Z Z Z

The sight of his son startled Alejandro. The book in his hand almost fell to the ground before he clutched it tightly in his fingers. He walked forward, watching the quiet man sitting by the fire. It blazed; Alejandro studied the shadows the fire cast into the room. Large, dark shadows that reminded Alejandro of other shadows he thought were disappearing from his home.

Shaking his head, he thought he sounded like his son. The middle of the night could turn any man into a poet. "Diego." He stepped farther into the room when his son showed no response. "Diego?"

"Father," Diego said, turning his attention to the older man for only a minute. He stared at the fire so hard that Alejandro had to look at it. What secrets did the flames hold for Diego? What answers did he think he could get in them?

"You've stoked the fire."

Diego nodded, paying no attention as Alejandro moved a chair next to his and sat down in it. "I couldn't sleep. Why are you awake?"

An excellent question. "I couldn't sleep either. But I'm old man with an old man's thoughts." And fears. "Sleeping through the night is more of a struggle for me these days. You, however, have a warm bed with a beautiful wife."

A small smile touched Diego's lips for a moment. "Yes, I do."

"You both seem much happier these days."

Diego said nothing for a moment. Alejandro waited to see if his son would lie to him and deny past problems. Victoria was right; the de la Vegas kept too many secrets from each other. "We are. Although, I think that we will have to fight some days to keep from falling back into old patterns."

Alejandro relaxed. He sat a chair down next to his son. "Old patterns?"

"Victoria never said a word to me when people insulted her. She never has." Diego's words were clipped, and his fists sat tightly on his legs.

He understood the rage. "No, she always kept her head high. No matter what people said."

Diego finally stopped his study of the flames. He looked at his father and frowned. "You knew?"

"Of course I knew. Just as I knew that she didn't want me to know." It had hurt. All those years ago. Until he understood. Pride was important to a de la Vega, and Victoria's pride had kept her pain hidden away from those who loved her.

"How could you let people insult her?"

Alejandro's eyebrow lifted. "Let people insult her? I never let anyone insult her. No one dared to insult her to my face."

"Why did you not tell me?"

Another good question. Alejandro frowned as he admitted, "I don't know."

"You didn't expect me to do anything," Diego provided his own answer. "You thought I was too useless to defend a lady's honor."

The derision in those words hurt, but they lacked the power of truth. "No, I knew Victoria was important to you. I knew you would defend her honor." Why had he not shared Victoria's troubles with his son? Had he had suspicions even then about Diego's other life?

"How could you not-" Realization flamed in those eyes. "You did defend her honor."

"Not with fisticuffs or swords, no."

The looks of stunned disbelief on his son's face gave Alejandro much satisfaction. "You used social, political and economic power to defend her."

"I wasn't alone," he admitted. "Many people love her, Diego."

"Thank you."

"You have nothing to thank me for. She was my daughter in spirit long before you brought her into our family."

Diego smiled. "Do you remember when she punched that boy that made Lola cry? He was twice her size."

"And his nose was twice its size when she got done with him!" Father and son laughed together at old memories. After a few minutes of restful silence, Alejandro returned the conversation to its earlier point. "So, Victoria is learning how to trust you with the pains in her life."

"Yes, and I'm learning-"

"Learning?" Alejandro prompted after a few seconds of silence.

"How to stop hiding," he whispered. "I'm used to hiding from her."

The still closed book in his hand suddenly felt too heavy to hold. He rubbed his damp palm against his pant leg and tried to breathe past the heavy boar that pressed against his chest. Habit and feared demanded that he not ask questions. A greater fear and love demanded that he ask for the truth. "And from me."

For a moment, he thought Diego was going to make his usual denial. Instead, he closed his mouth and looked down at his hands for a few minutes. "And from you," he finally admitted.

The boar rushed off his chest, letting Alejandro breathe again. His blood roared in his ears, and he blinked back sudden the sudden moisture that had appeared in his eyes. "Are you planning to stop hiding?"

Diego's smile held a hint of self-mockery. "I'm planning to try. I have to stop hiding. It's destroying everything that I love." Diego's eyes shined with an unspoken apology. "Even you, I think."

Alejandro flinched. "I'm not-"

"Don't," his son whispered. "I've watched you age so much since Gilberto died. I tried to blame the new lines on your face on him. But I know that I'm mostly to blame."

Trying to find the words to deny the accusation, he stared at his son. Diego's shoulders slumped more as he spoke. "You are worried about me. About Zorro. You are worried about Victoria. About our marriage. And you've been worrying about the fact you are unsure of the truth."

Diego's eyes met his as he said, "I never meant to lie to you for so long. It wasn't supposed to be this long."

"I know," he said, pushing it past the lump in his throat. "I know."

Leaning forward, Alejandro stoked the fire. He needed time to gather his thoughts, and he suspected his son did too. "It's almost dawn, Diego. You should go back to bed."

"No, I can't sleep." The words were quick. Alejandro felt the invisible curtain that had separated them for so long fall back between them, and he resented it in a way he never had before. But it wasn't him who tore it down. Diego did. He watched as his son shook away old thoughts, old habits.

"How did you do it?"

Alejandro thought of his marriage and wondered what part Diego was wondering about. "Do what?"

"Fight a war."

The difficulty breathing returned. "Fight a war? Diego, you have been fighting a war, by yourself, since you returned home. I don't think you need any advice from me."

"I've never had to kill." Spoken so softly that Alejandro wondered if they had been spoken.

"Kill? No, you've never had to kill." Sometimes, people questioned that decision. Alejandro had heard the debates, and he knew Diego had, too. If Zorro had been willing to kill, would the battle between him and the two _alcaldes_ have ended sooner?

Diego again stared at the flames as if they could give him answers. "How did you do it?"

Alejandro remembered those early years. His memories, but sometimes they felt as if they belonged to someone else. "Killing was easy, Diego."

"Easy?" The horror in that voice hurt. Alejandro wanted to hide this thought from his son, but he knew if Diego was daring to ask, he needed to hear the truth.

"Easy. The living with it was harder. Your mother couldn't understand, no matter how hard she tried, why I wasn't excited to see you when I returned home. I was always withdrawn when I returned from a campaign, but she expected your birth to have changed it. I couldn't-It wasn't easy to leave the battlefields behind."

He studied his son, noticed how Diego's breathing was labored. He pushed down the fear that wanted to overwhelm him. "The choice you made not to kill was the harder one, I believe. You didn't let fear control you or control your actions. Anger never pushed you to cross a line you made for yourself. And even if the battle could have been ended sooner with the flick of your blade, you restrained yourself, and I admire your courage."

It felt good to speak these words finally. To say what was on his mind instead of worrying and wondering if his fears and hopes were true.

"I let fear rule me the other night. I had never felt that kind of fear before. I struck a man, stabbed him in the heart."

With shaking hands, Alejandro set down his book. He wouldn't be reading it tonight. "You killed a man?" A horrible burden he never wanted his son to know. He had been fortunate. The first man he killed had been from a distance. A musket ball that might have missed its target but probably didn't. And even though the first man he killed with his blade had been done in the midst of a heated and fierce battle, he could remember the face. The feel of the blood as it splattered on him.

"No," Diego whispered. "I didn't kill him."

Alejandro blinked. "You stabbed him in the heart?"

Diego's voice lacked any emotion. "It didn't kill him. He kept fighting."

Old habits would be broken tonight, because Alejandro could not spend another night worrying about what was happening with his son. "Diego, what's happening?"

His son took in a shaky breath. "Everyone is talking about it."

"The dead cattle. Javier."

Diego's chest rose and fell too quickly. "Yes."

"You know the cause?"

A sudden unidentifiable sound escaped Diego. It chilled Alejandro's blood. "Everyone is talking about it."

"What?" He needed get Diego to bed. Obviously that brilliant mind was too tired to work clearly.

"Vampires."

The ticking of the clock was the only sound in the room. Alejandro struggled between laughter and shock. Should he awaken Victoria and get her help in leading Diego to his bed? "Vampires," he said lightly. "Everyone-"

"No, Father. I'm not joking. I wish I were. I don't want to believe." The words trembled themselves out of Diego's mouth. His chest shook from his rapid breathing. "I've seen them. Seen them feed. They're animals. I want to think of them as animals. I can kill dangerous animals."

Alejandro wondered if the late night had diminished his mind, too. He should be telling his son to relax, to forget about his fears. He should be telling-no, yelling-that there was no such things as vampires. And, yet, the simple belief and despair in Diego's voice kept that certainty hidden away from Alejandro. A certainty he held no more than a minute ago. "Vampires?"

"Vampires."

The reason Victoria suddenly wore his wife's rosary made sense. He studied the flames, suddenly understanding their appeal to Diego. "They're animals."

"But they look human."

Father and son stared at the fire until the sun rose high in the sky.

Z Z Z

"Diego's asleep?" Alejandro knew he should be out working in his fields, but he lacked the energy. Camila had already clucked over him like the mother hen she could be. Victoria had managed to get both to eat some breakfast before forcing her husband to get some rest.

He could feel her eyes on him, studying him. Without looking, he knew her fists were pressed against her side, and her foot was tapping. However, he had always been her elder and a man she respected. That respect was keeping him safe from being sent to his bed.

The fire was dying. He should order more wood. And blankets. But he wouldn't, because he knew that people depended on him to be strong. If he acted ill, the _hacienda_ would be filled with fear and rumors. A summer day could not be spent under blankets, no matter how deep the chill in his bones.

"You should be asleep, too, Father." Her respect apparently was not as great as he thought.

"I can't."

"Father-"

"Are you proud of him?"

"Always." No hesitation.

"Are you terrified for him?"

She lumbered over to sit in the chair her husband had abandoned earlier. Reaching over, she squeezed his hand. "Always."

Z Z Z

Diego awoke knowing what needed to be done. He looked over to where his wife lay propped up by pillows, a book in her hand. Seeing the title, he smiled. He had recommended it to her before they married.

Carefully, he positioned himself to lie on her belly. He could hear the smile in her voice. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon," he replied, feeling his son or daughter issue his-or her-hello.

"You need to sleep, Diego."

"I need to kill them, Victoria. To finish this."

Her fingers paused before she resumed combing his hair. "Because they killed Javier."

"No," he admitted. Shame built in his throat. One death alone would not have forced him to face the terror. One death had made Esperanza's plan to carefully confront the groups of vampires as she trained him make sense. However, after talking to his father last night, after looking at the flames, and hearing his father talk about Diego's long war, his mind had cleared. He knew what he had to do.

No long war. He couldn't handle another. His son or daughter deserved a father who would be there for them. No more hiding. No more lying. No more being less than he was so he could be Zorro.

"I've got to finish this," he said, looking up and meeting her eyes. "Soon."

Her lip trembled, but she blinked away the tears. "What can I do to help?"

Pushing himself up, he leaned forward and kissed her. "I'm glad you asked."

Z Z Z

Esperanza could not hide her amazement. "What on-?"

"Our weapons," Diego said.

The cave was packed with glass bottles and torches prepared to be lit with ease. She could smell the oil they had been soaked in. "We're not fighting them tonight."

"Yes, we are," Diego said as he performed the final act needed to make him Zorro-putting on his mask.

"Diego, you are not prepared-"

"To wait. To continue fighting another decade-long war. It ends soon."

"More are arriving every day."

"Then the sooner we start openly fighting her and her troops, the sooner word gets around that it is not safe to come to Los Angeles."

A different Diego. Whatever fears and troubles had been plaguing him were only memories now. "Or it could be seen as a challenge by some."

A flash of hesitation, but only a flash. "We will handle them as they come."

The cautious nature she had been cultivating said to wait, to train, to prepare for a war that would take years to win. Aldrick would laugh. Say that her impulsive nature had saved her more often than she was willing to give it credit. Looking at this man, a man she could admire, she wondered if she could ask him to wait. To be patient. To give up another large part of his life to win a war he did not want or need.

"Okay."

He opened his mouth to argue, blinked, closed it, and opened it again. He lifted his hand and then said, "Okay?"

"If you are willing to throw caution to the wind, so am I." In fact, her blood sang at the idea. She only hoped she did not cause this man to shed his blood tonight. The thought horrified her.

A dark shadow flew across the cave. She caught it and looked at Zorro with a silent question. "Victoria made it for you. She said I could not fight alone, and if you were ill, I would be alone."

She looked down at the heavy mask. "What's in this?"

"Charcoal. Cotton. Some other filters. We will need to test it before we leave, but it should protect you from the odors."

She nodded and stared again in amazement at all the work sitting around her. Diego had looked too rested to be able to do it all by himself. "How did you get all of this-?"

"Victoria closed the tavern earlier and had all her employees make the solution, and Father had our ranch hands make the torches."

"Your father knows?"

"Yes."

That's why the shadows that had lurked in his eyes had fled. Secrets plagued him no more. Neither did doubts. "Victoria must have lost most of her glass wear to this battle."

Diego's smile was gentle, sweet. "She has, but she knows it's worth it."

"Everyone in the _pueblo_ must be discussing how the entire de la Vega clan has gone _loco_."

The masked man blinked, frowned, and then smiled. "I'm not sure that particular theory is new."

Esperanza laughed. "Really? You de la Vegas are known to be crazy?"

He held up hand with his thumb and forefinger a tiny distance apart. "Just a little."

She smiled. "We should go attack the group staying with Modestus."

"We're going to see Tasia tonight."

She remembered how close Tasia had gotten to seducing her black knight. "I do not think that would be wise."

"We're going to go see Tasia," he repeated.

"Ah, an honor thing." He only stared at her. "You have to make a formal deceleration of war."

"Yes," he replied. "Are you ready?"

"No, but I don't think that really matters," was the only reply she could give as she followed him out of the cave.

Z Z Z


	11. Chapter 11

Tasia froze as the door to her home slammed open. Diego de la Vega, wearing that silly little outfit stormed into her living space. Innocenzio stood and reached for a sword that was not at his side. "Diego, do come in and rest. Tea?" she greeted him.

The flash of anger in the masked man's eyes made her laugh. The laughter was cut short when another guest entered behind him. "Tasia, it's been years," Esperanza said.

"Decades really."

"Too long," Esperanza replied with a grin.

Tasia would not play the game of human civility that Esperanza was playing. "Not nearly long enough in my opinion. An opinion you will probably share if you do not leave this area at once."

To her fury, Esperanza laughed as she jumped over Tasia's high-backed chair and landed in it. She tucked one booted foot beneath her and placed the other boot directly on the silk ottoman. Tasia's fingers itched to claw her eyes out.

"Relax, my dear," Innocenzio said, taking one of her hands in his and lifting it up for a kiss. "We have guests. Robert," he said to the servant who had just stumbled into the room. Robert's eyes were large, and Tasia could smell his surprise and fear. "Bring us some tea, please."

Robert looked to her and she nodded. She would trust her lover. The area was his old hunting ground, and Zorro was his old enemy. She knew he had her best interest at heart. She sat down next to him. "Please, Diego, have a seat."

The other man flinched at his name, but he sat. "I know what you want, Tasia. I'm here to tell you that you're not going to get it."

Tasia smiled. "Really."

"Really," the man's confidence almost startled her. Almost.

"So you are-"

"Here to declare war," Esperanza said.

To Tasia's surprise, Innocenzio laughed. A deep belly laugh. "Oh, Diego, how like you. Wouldn't it have been more efficient to attack us like you did Miguel? Surprise is a useful weapon, Diego."

Esperanza answered again. "I made the same arguments. He wouldn't listen."

"I will win this war, Tasia," the man said as Robert entered with their tea.

She said nothing as she poured the hot liquid. She handed Innocenzio his and then poured Diego's. She stood and sauntered over to him. She sat down in his lap, and heard his gasp. The Call was a powerful weapon. "Are you sure?" she said, leaning forward to whisper in his ear.

To her shock, he pushed her away without a struggle. His eyes were clear. No lust. No confusion. Nothing clouded them. "I'm sure," he said, standing. "I will win."

He turned and left the room. Tasia could only hope that the shock on Esperanza's face was not matched on her own. "You know," the other woman said, standing. "I'm starting to believe that he can." She poured herself a cup and gulped it down in one swallow. "Thanks for the tea, Tasia." Her grin was large. "And the entertainment. We will have to do this again. In another hundred years or so."

Z Z Z

"Very good, Diego." Diego turned to look back at the house he had just escaped. Ramone stood at the doorway, casually leaning against it. "The Call is very powerful, or so I'm told."

Zorro stood, desperate to run away from the horrors inside that house. Another part of him needed to offer Ramone a chance. Maybe another old habit that needed to be broken. "You don't know yourself? Esperanza said all that could be turned into a vampire feel the Call when they meet a Vampire."

"I was unconscious and in a lot of pain, Diego," Ramone said, walking out into the garden. "You and I fought on that wall. It seemed so important to me. When I finally grasped that mocking mask and ripped it from you face, I felt free. Then I was falling. When I woke up a few days later, everything was different."

Diego remembered the free feeling. The mask gone. Only seconds of honesty between them before Ramone fell and sadness overtook him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Diego." Ramone laughed and looked up at the stars. "Best day of my life."

"Ramone, take her and leave this area."

"I lost my memory. I don't know if it was from the fall or the trauma of becoming a vampire or both. The whiteness of my mind frightened me. I wanted, needed, to know my past. Tasia gave it back to me. And I thought I wanted revenge on you."

"You don't?"

"No," he said. "It's foolish, unimportant. If you were wise, Diego, you would take Tasia up on her offer. You could help rule the world."

"I will stop her."

Ramone shook his head and continued to stare at the stars. "No, I won't let you win this fight. It's too important to her."

"I have too much to lose, Ramone."

"Perhaps." He finally looked at him. "You have many amazing strengths, Diego. Resisting the Call tonight was impressive, and I'm not unduly shocked by it."

"But?"

"I know you. I know your strengths, your weaknesses, and how to make them work for me. You'll never be able to kill, Diego. It's not in you. Besides, the moment I removed your mask, you became a man to me. And a man can always be beaten."

Doubt whispered through his mind. "You aren't alive."

"Strange. I feel alive. I look alive."

"I will win this war." He wished his voice sounded surer. He wished he felt surer. Ramone did know him. What if in the end he couldn't do what he needed to do?

"I really don't think so, Diego." Ramone turned and Diego noticed that Esperanza was standing behind them.

She watched him go and then said, "You ready?"

For a brief moment, he allowed his doubts to overwhelm him. Then he thought of his child. Of his wife's faith. Of his father's. "I'm ready."

Z Z Z

"I don't understand." Her hand trembled. Her hand trembled! Rage she had long ago forgotten soared its way through her body. "He resisted."

"I warned you not to underestimate him." She glared at him, but he only smiled. "You will overcome him, my dear, but he will cause some minor injury to the campaign."

"I studied that prophecy for years."

"Tasia, my love, when will you realize that the prophecy is unimportant?"

"Unimportant?" The world slowed around her. Robert froze in the act of picking up shards of a shattered tea cup.

"Unimportant."

Reyes had taken her in his arms and changed her life. Had told her that she was important. A street girl who could hardly find food for herself was going to be ruler of the world. He promised. She had lived for that prophecy and what it promised her.

"It says I will rule the world. You honestly consider that 'unimportant'?"

Innocenzio shook his head. "No. If you want to rule the world, Tasia, I will do everything in my power to see it happen. It's important to me because it is important to you."

Again, the strangeness. Her desires ruled his desires. Unnatural. Frightening. Intoxicating.

"If I decided to leave tonight-"

"I'd follow."

Stepping forward, she laid her hand on his chest and studied the tilt of his head, the passion in his eyes. He appeared to mean it. "You'd follow."

She turned and walked over to the fire. She always stood too close to fires. Innocenzio was right. The prophecy was unimportant. It may have helped create her drive, but she was the force creating change. She had worked for years carefully cultivating relationships. Her plan was almost complete, and no human would keep her from getting what she wanted.

"I want to rule the world."

His hands came to rest on her shoulders. "What do we need to do?"

Z Z Z

"What are we doing, Zorro?"

Esperanza stared at the man leaning against a tree. He was motionless. It appeared as if he stopped breathing. Bottles of the fowl liquid were lined beside him, but they had been there for over an hour. He had explained nothing to her as they emptied the saddlebags, and he continued to do nothing but study several feet in front of them. The party atmosphere kept them hidden away from the revelers, but every instinct she had said fight. Now.

"We are waiting," he finally answered.

"For what?" They needed to strike now. Tasia was not one to wait, and she knew her position was being challenged. Modestus was one of the weakest links, and they needed to break that link before Tasia had a chance to strengthen it.

She heard hoof beats in the distance. "Damn."

"They're coming." The smile in his voice shocked her.

"Yes, they are coming."

Even from this distance, she could see that Tasia was surprised by the party atmosphere. She had realized Esperanza's plan obviously. Esperanza grit her teeth and reached to gather their weapons.

"What are you doing?" Zorro asked, standing straight.

"Our surprise attack won't be a surprise now."

"No, it won't. What is he saying to her?"

"Modestus?" She listened. "He's asking what she's doing here."

"Good." Her companion stood suddenly and grabbed two bottles. Esperanza tried to stop him as he strolled out into the open. "She came to warn you about me!" His voice was firm and could easily be heard, but it was not a yell. The wind blew around him, causing the cape to blow out. Even from behind, he created an impressive figure.

Unfortunately, that impressive figure would soon be dead. The Destroyer had lost his mind. They were in no position to attack this of group of vampires without the aid of surprise. "Zorro!"

"Put your mask on," he whispered, looking over his shoulder for only a moment. Then, he continued his speech to the startled vampires. She bet he looked great and imposing to them. "I think you have heard of me. The Dark One. The Destroyer. Now is your only chance to leave alive."

Tasia laughed but the rest remained silent. Unsure of this mad man. "You are but one man, _Senor_."

"I am the Destroyer," he said. The words sent a shiver up Esperanza's spine. Then he tossed the bottles. And the screaming started.

Z Z Z

Vampires scattered. Horses that had been held captive as the vampires drank their blood neighed. The beating of their hoofs pounded into the air. Tasia's screams of fury made Diego smile.

"Let's finish this," he yelled to Esperanza as he rushed back to jump on Tornado's back.

She struck a flint stone against a piece of steel to light one of the oil-soaked torches. She lit three others and tossed him two before he raced out to fight the remaining vampires.

The blood pounded in his veins. He concentrated on Tasia's voice screeching orders. Needed to concentrate on her voice to keep from thinking about what he was doing. He put a flame next to a being that looked exactly like a man and raced away as he burst into fire. He tossed bottles of chemicals that were making creatures that looked like humans ill.

His blade remained at his side as he continued fighting. He jumped off of Tornado's back and fought as a man. Punching. Hitting. Kicking. And flames. Lots of flames. And breaking glass. But no sword. He refused. Never again would he know the feeling of a blade cutting its way through flesh.

Z Z Z

Esperanza laughed when she realized that the fight had changed. No longer was it her and Zorro versus a group of vampires. Now vampire was fighting vampire. Some were grouped together fighting others groups. And she and Zorro were continuing their work, promoting the chaos around them.

Her eyes burned from the chemicals in the air, but the mask Victoria and Diego had made her appeared to be working. No nausea. She could fight past the burning sensation on her skin when she neared the chemicals. She'd pay the price tomorrow.

Tonight, she was following a mad-man. A mad-man who might just win the war before it even started.

Z Z Z

"I warned you, Tasia," Modestus yelled over the noise.

He appeared before her. His jacket was covered in dust. His lips were bleeding, and his left eye was swollen shut. The blade grasped in his hand warned her to be prepared.

She stepped back against Innocenzio and drew his sword as he punched another vampire in the nose. All of her hard work. Destroyed. Years of planning. Destroyed. By him. By the Dark One.

In any other circumstance, she knew her chances of winning against Modestus were remote. But he was injured. And furious. She had the advantage and she pressed it.

Their blades crossed and battled. She expected a war of words as she attacked and retreated, but Modestus remained quiet. The silence unnerved her far more than any of his taunts could.

But as she pressed forward to take advantage of his growing weakness, he appeared. Zorro. She heard his blade draw from its sheath and then his sword stopped hers. Inches from Modestus' throat.

"Go," he said, not looking at Modestus. "Go, and tell them all that Tasia has lost to me. And that they are to stay far away from Los Angeles."

Modestus took a moment to study this man of legend. She knew him. Knew him well. Could see the desire to fight him in those black eyes. Instead, he looked at her and spat at the ground. "I will have my revenge, Tasia." He looked at Zorro. "If he does not get it before me."

Z Z Z

Diego studied the bloody and dirty woman before him. Gone was the lust. The drive to be like her that he hadn't understood. It had almost destroyed him, his soul. But Victoria's love had protected him.

He grasped the sword and questioned his determination not to use it to draw blood. This woman was a threat.

Ramone stepped forward. Blood dripped onto his shirt from his temple. The two men stared at each other. Finally, Zorro dropped his sword. He owed Ramone. Perhaps the man had deserved to die. But on the gallows, after facing a court of law, and not from a fall caused by Zorro having fun instead of paying attention to the possible dangers.

"Go," he said again. "Take her far away from here."

Ramone laughed. "You're letting us go?"

"Her plan has failed."

"It's only been postponed," Ramone snarled.

Zorro could see that Tasia knew. Like he did. It was over. Whatever chance she may have had through destiny had been destroyed tonight. Wherever she went, rumors of her failure would always arrive before she did. Wherever she went.

"Go."

Ramone nodded his head, took Tasia's hand and walked away.

Z Z Z

Esperanza fought the urge to race after the retreating vampires. The fight was over. It looked like even the war itself was over. The _loco_ man in black had done it. He'd used his reputation to their advantage.

She walked over to where he stood and enjoyed the breeze. Soon the smells in the area should be gone. Then, she and Zorro could burn what evidence remained. "It's over."

She turned and looked back at their battlefield. Some corpses remained, headless. The fact their bodies remained spoke of their relative youth. Old vampires turned into dust as soon as they lost their heads.

Those bodies were her work. She'd noticed Zorro's refusal to use his blade. During her recent stint in Los Angeles, she'd heard the rumors of his hatred of death and injury. Tonight she began to understand what their war might be costing him.

The scent of blood played on the air. She inhaled deeply. His blood. Turning on her heals, she rushed over to him. "You are injured."

He nodded. "One of the vampires got me with his dagger before I could block him with my torch. It's nothing."

The amount of blood she smelled said differently. Reaching forward, she pressed her hand against his side. The warmth of his blood oozed through her fingers and he gasped. "You're injured."

He looked down at his blood-soaked sleeve, but she knew his mind was elsewhere. "I let them go."

She had a million arguments on why that was the wrong choice to make. But she wouldn't give him a single one. He had done his job. Now she would take care of the rest. The remaining burden she would carry alone.

"I owed him."

Ripping off her jacket sleeve, she said, "Owed him?"

Zorro nodded in the direction of their retreating enemies, paying no attention to her ministrations. "He loves her. He really loves her."

Esperanza chuckled and continued to apply pressure. "Doesn't say much about him in my opinion. She's a viper, and it takes a viper to love her."

"He always had ambition. If he worked as hard as he schemed, he could have made something of himself," Zorro admitted through gritted teeth.

She nodded her satisfaction at her makeshift bandage. "You'll need to get that looked after as soon as you get home. Victoria might have to sew it."

"She's done it before," he admitted. He finally looked at her. "She's a wonderful woman."

"I know."

"And I almost lost her." He shook his head. "I owed Ramone the chance to take her from Los Angeles."

"What if they don't leave? Tasia's not one to give up."

Zorro was silent for a moment. She could hear his pain in his breathing. "She knows it's over."

She frowned. "You're certain?"

"She knows the war is lost."

"I've never known her to give up so easily. Please don't underestimate her, Diego."

"I have-" He tensed, and his fist clenched by his sides. His breath left him in a hiss. "I've underestimated her. She's giving up the war but not the battle."

Esperanza looked at the desolate field around them. A few fires still flickered, but the silence seemed oppressive. "The battle is over."

"Not until she hurts me." Lifting an eyebrow, Esperanza gave a pointed look to his side. He shook his head. "This-this is not hurting me. She's going after Victoria."

Z Z Z


	12. Chapter 12

Alejandro watched Victoria pace. Earlier he had thought it was nerves driving her to walk a path in their floor, but now watching her closely, he began to wonder. "Victoria, are you unwell?"

Her smile worried him. Stress curled at its corners. "I'm fine."

"Victoria-"

She lifted a hand to stop him from standing. "I'm fine, Father. I'm in labor."

He jumped. "Victoria-"

"Sit."

"You need-"

Her eyes were daggers. "Sit."

"Victoria, you're in labor."

She rubbed her belly before returning her hands to her lower back. "This baby is not being born without his father here."

"It's a shame the child shall lose its life when his mother loses hers," a familiar voice said. "The blood of a newborn is especially tasty."

Alejandro turned and stared at the intruders. Both were disheveled. Rusty brown spots covered their shirts and pants. Cuts and bruises told of a hard fight. But the smiles on their faces were those of predators who had just caught a juicy dinner.

His eyes kept straying to Ramone, a man he knew to be dead. No matter what Diego had said, no matter what part of him had chosen to believe, a part of him still refused to accept what his eyes saw. Tasia stepped forward, and his attention focused to her. An old soldier's instinct warned him that she was the dangerous one.

"Tasia, I did not expect to see you tonight," he said, falling back on manners to give him time to think.

A throaty laugh echoed in the room. "I am sure you never expected to see me again. Your son, your dutiful son, was to finish the battle tonight."

"Finish it?" He glanced over at Victoria. Even with the sheen of sweat on her face and the grimace of pain that twisted her features, she showed no signs of fear. Pride raced through his veins.

"Instead we will be the ones to finish it," a dead man's voice said with a hint of boredom. Tasia's familiar grin somehow appeared more evil than usual.

"Yes, we will finish it."

"No, I'll finish it," an unexpected voice announced calmly. Alejandro refused to admit the relief he felt, refused to admit how frightened he had been by the possibility of his son's death. "I warned you."

Tasia and Ramone turned to face his son. Alejandro rushed over and gathered Victoria into his grasp. Her fingers clutched at his arm as another contraction wrecked its way through her body. She refused to cry out, biting hard on her lip. Alejandro understood: never show the enemy your fear. Diego had chosen well.

Z Z Z

It only took moments for Diego to study the people in front of him. He immediately noticed the panic on his father's face and the determination on his wife's. The rage on the two vampires' faces was also easy to see. He could only hope the smothering fear working its way through his body was not noticeable. He thought he sounded calm and in control when he spoke.

His home had been invaded. His family was in danger. Rage started to merge with fear, and he fought to keep them both at bay. He needed to think not react. In all his years as Zorro, never had it been so hard.

"I warned you, Ramone. You were to take her away from here."

Ramone simply smiled. Tasia answered. "He follows my orders, de la Vega."

Diego nodded his head in acknowledgment. "And Esperanza thought you were a smart opponent."

Tasia's eyes narrowed. She lifted her sword and offered a quick salute and the battle began. Even while he attacked and retreated, Diego listened as his father offered soothing words to Victoria. He was keenly aware of his wife's hiss as she fought to keep from screaming as their babe started to fight his way from his mother's body. The thumping of his heart almost blocked out the sound of the blades hitting.

Yet, the noise didn't keep him from being focused. Instead, the awareness of what he could lose today kept him sharp. His blade whipped the air, almost faster than the eye could see. More than ever, failure was not an option. His home, his family, was counting on him.

Tasia lunged. He shifted his weight, spun and lifted his blade. No hesitation. His blade cut through her throat. The shock on her face caused some deep, dark part of his soul to cheer. But as he watched her body crumple into dust he felt nothing. Not even relief.

Another promise to himself broken. He knew that after tonight he would never be able to use his mentor's sword again.

"Leave," he told a stunned Ramone.

No words were spoken. But thousands of promises were made as the enemies' eyes met. Diego knew he should kill the vampire in front of him, but something stopped him. Old guilt perhaps. Ramone's face promised that one day Diego would rue that guilt.

But not today. Today was about life. His son or his daughter was about to be born, and he could handle no more death.

Esperanza moved beside him to watch the blond vampire leave. "You'll regret it."

"Maybe," Diego said, his attention already turning to that which was important: the future.

Z Z Z

"He made the right decision."

She spun to look at her former lover. She had been standing outside of the de la Vega's window for an unseemly amount of time staring at the newborn who lay between her two sleeping parents. "Aldrick."

"His battle has finished. At least for now."

"I don't think the war is over. It should have with Tasia's end, but-"

"The war has only begun. But it is not his war. Not any longer. The darkness is gone." Aldrick said as he studied the family.

Esperanza frowned. "I don't think he plans to stop being Zorro just yet."

"I was-" Aldrick cleared his throat. "I have always loved that about you. You were a mythical creature who could not think outside of the box. Who was so literal."

Her eyebrow shot up at his words. Centuries of control gone in a moment. "Loved?"

Aldrick turned to face her. Centuries of control gone for him as well. Lost? Or left behind? "Love."

"You-"

"Had to leave. I couldn't stay. I would've prevented you from being our savior."

"The Dark One-"

"Saved mankind. You must save us, my dear."

Esperanza struggled to gather her thoughts. "Aldrick-"

"I wanted to tell you. I knew from the moment we met that you were important. I could feel it, and yet, I couldn't stop myself from caring. I almost hated you for it."

As a little girl, Esperanza had lost the ability to believe in dreams. "What's different now?"

If she had not known him so well, she might not have noticed the hesitation. Debating. Always debating. The cautious one. He teased her about her box, but he was trapped within his own.

"You're strong. You are ready. And I am tired."

The weariness with which he said that last word scared her. "Tired? You?"

He placed his hand on the window sill. His attention remained on the baby. "Did I ever tell you about the First? What happened to her?"

"No."

"She was brilliant. A scientist with no equal. And she realized the truth of our situation much faster than the rest of us."

Esperanza gasped. The last few days had obviously taken a toll on her. She needed rest. Sleep. She needed to get away from this Destroyer. Destroyer of peace. Destroyer of certainty. A man who loved his wife and child to the point he could resist the Call. A man who could do the impossible for love.

A man who maybe could even teach an old vampire to trust.

Now Aldrick was confessing what no ancient ever confessed. Not to someone as young as she. He was indeed one of the scientists of Atlantis. "The truth?"

"Something that never ends, something that is endless in supply, is never appreciated. Never respected. We lost the joy that life brought."

"You always seemed happy when I was a child."

He finally looked at her. "Because I knew. Time with you would be short. And I needed to appreciate it."

She took one last look at the de la Vega family and began to walk away. "And now time with me would be infinite, so-."

"I have about a hundred years left," he said so quietly, so nonchalantly, that she thought he must be joking.

But he never joked.

"She was the most brilliant of us, and she was tired of taking everything for granted. She found a way to end it. To stop the cells from replenishing. It was a slow way to die. Very much in the way that humans die, actually. She smiled so much in those last few decades."

She punched him. Hard. "You son of a bitch."

He grasped her fist in his hand. "I love you. I want to be with you. But I am tired. And I cannot stop you from being what you need to be."

"Care to share what it is I am supposed to be?" Anger kept the pain away.

"I cannot. I just know that you have to save us from ourselves."

Her laughter hurt. "I cannot even save you. How am I to save us all?"

He kissed her forehead. "You just will."

She resisted the urge to wipe at tears that she could not shed. "I hate you."

"I know," he said.

The noise of the night surrounded them as they stood in the de la Vega garden making silent promises to each other.

Z Z Z

Exhaustion fought with exhilaration in his blood. Tonight his daughter had been born. His wife was tired but healthy. His father looked ten years younger. And he was now the proud papa of a little girl who would make him melt every time she smiled.

And he planned on seeing her smile a lot.

Tonight had changed everything. He didn't need any prophecies to know that truth. He felt it in his very bones.

He was a father. Again.

Felipe would understand. Perhaps even better than Diego himself. The boy had always been years too old in spirit.

He would understand that little Eva's introduction in the de la Vega family was different. Not because she was more important to them. But there was no sorrow this time. No grieving child. No desperate search for parents lost. No growing acceptance that the young child with wounded eyes had become an orphan in that battle.

Diego could imagine the grin on his adopted son's face when he read about his new sister. He knew the debate the boy-the man-would have with himself. And he knew that Felipe would always feel a little guilty for not coming home immediately, even if his father's letter told him not to do so.

And he would protect her as fiercely as Diego himself. And spoil her even more than her grandfather. If that were possible.

"Your daughter is beautiful."

He turned to face Esperanza and a stranger. "Yes, she is. As beautiful as her mother."

A sad smile touched Esperanza's lips. "I was a fool to ever doubt your love for her."

"No," Diego had to admit. "We were-" He struggled to find the words to explain.

"You both were in darkness," the stranger said. "Too blind to see the obvious."

"True."

"And I was a fool to take a prophecy so literally."

The stranger smiled and took her hand in his, bringing it up to his lips. No color touched her cheeks, but her demeanor reminded Diego of a blushing lady.

"Ramone-"

"Is still a threat to you," the stranger said. "However, I believe he will be too busy running from my Esperanza to bother you."

Diego heard the warning in words not said. "But always be vigilant."

"Always."

Exhaustion settled on his shoulders. He stood from the writing desk, his letter to Felipe in his fingers. "Thank you for helping me out of the darkness, Esperanza."

"You're welcome. And thank you for showing me that not all men disappoint."

Diego frowned, confused. "I-"

Stepping forward, she placed a hand on his shoulder and pressed cool lips to his cheek. "I will keep you informed of the war, Diego."

"Thank you."

And just as suddenly as she entered his life, she left it.

Z Z Z

The argument between Diego and Victoria was getting louder.

Alejandro grinned and sipped his coffee. Breakfast was his favorite time of the day. In the de la Vega household, it was a time to discuss everything and anything. Including the approaching Mexican army.

"I agree with Victoria, my son," Alejandro said, injecting himself in the middle of the argument.

Diego opened his mouth to argue his point, but stopped when Alejandro held up his hand. "We will know soon enough if Mexico wishes to keep her new territories."

His son nodded and returned his attention to his eggs. "Victoria, what have you decided about your expansion plans?"

Her smile brightened the room. "Diego must show you the plans he has drawn for the tavern. They are wonderful."

While dressing this morning, Alejandro had realized that it had been exactly one year earlier that Victoria shared that she was expecting.

Amazing what one year could do.

His family was happy again. His home was full of laughter. And the cries of a magnificent granddaughter sometimes rang through the air. His son and daughter were one in every way that mattered.

Not that it had been a smooth journey. Both were stubborn. Both had been locked in familiar patterns for too long to give them up easily. But they were giving them up.

As he was. He had grown blind over the years. Habit? Necessity? How had he missed all the obvious evidence that his son was Zorro? Had he done it deliberately, so as to be free from the worry?

And worry he did.

Zorro still rode. Not as often. The _alcalde_ caused little problem these days, and most bandits stayed away from Los Angeles, content with easier targets to the north and south.

Zorro still rode. And Alejandro's heart ached every time. Pride filled him, but that did not keep away the sleepless nights.

So he fought hard against the blindness. He spent the last few months actually getting to know his son. All of him. Not just that which was obvious or that which was hidden.

Zorro still rode, but Alejandro knew that his son hoped to retire the hero soon. He thought the Mexican army would do a better job of fighting bandits than the poorly paid and supplied Spanish army.

Camila entered and handed them the mail that had arrived on the coach that morning. Silence filled the room as each de la Vega sifted through his pile. Victoria informed them that her brother Ramone had written as she gleefully ripped open the letter. Alejandro smiled when he saw the letter from an old friend. But both turned their attention to Diego when he announced his letter from Felipe.

"He says that he received the miniature of Eva." Diego smiled. "He says it's my best work. I managed to make his new sister look like an angel."

Victoria laughed. She often teased the two men of the household about the way they dotted on the newborn. "He's never heard how she cries at night."

"All babies cry," Diego protested.

Victoria laughed. It was a familiar argument at breakfast. She believed Diego and Alejandro were spoiling her daughter. And Alejandro and Diego knew she was right, even as they argued with her for appearances' sake. But she was so beautiful and so perfect, how could they resist her cries?

"Hmmm."

Alejandro sat down his coffee. "What?"

"Felipe says he has met the most annoying woman." Diego flipped the paper over, quickly scanning it and the next page. "He talks about her at some length."

Alejandro saw that his son and daughter-in-law were wearing the same grin on their faces that he had on his. "Most annoying."

"Yes," Diego said, his smile making its way into his voice. "She has dark brown hair and emerald eyes."

"Emerald?" Victoria asked. "Sounds beautiful."

"Do you think he's realized that he's infatuated yet?"

Victoria and Diego looked at each other before turning their attention to him. "No," they both answered.

Alejandro nodded his head and picked up his coffee. "He is a de la Vega."

"Stubborn," Victoria agreed.

"But he's also smart," Diego said. "He will figure it out."

Alejandro settled back into his chair as Diego and Victoria talked about what the letter said about the lady who very well likely could be their daughter-in-law by the time Felipe returned home. The joy in their faces, in their voices, washed over him.

He looked around his home, sighing with some regret. Felipe would not wait to have his wedding at home if the "annoying" lady was the one. After all, decisive action was also a major de la Vega trait.

"Are you all right, Father?"

Alejandro smiled. "I'm wonderful, my son. Just wonderful."

Z Z Z

Last edit: 05/22/2011

A/N: I can't believe this story is finally done. As I was waiting for beta work to be finished, I sincerely thought about giving instructions to my husband to make sure this was published if I died before posting it.

I wrote this story because I wanted to bring back a Ramone who knew Diego's secret and was a threat. Instead of using vampires, I guess I could've gone with a Ramone who didn't fall after pulling off that mask. Mmmm...

And I wanted to do a post-marriage Diego and Victoria story. It hit me once that they never really communicate. Their first real argument was the day of their engagement. I thought they would have some nasty habits to overcome to have a happy marriage.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
